In 1962 Ayn Rand accepted an invitation to write a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times. The column became enormously popular, covering a wide variety of topics: from the welfare state to freedom of speech to foreign policy to the death of Marilyn Monroe. Unlike so much “journalistic commentary — which is stale and irrelevant just days, or hours after it is written — virtually nothing of hers becomes outdated,” explains editor Peter Schwartz in his introduction. “Her perspective is that of a grand historian whose time frame is the centuries and whose function is to explain the world by reference to universal truths.” Every book by Ayn Rand published in her lifetime, including Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and The Virtue of Selfishness is still in print, and hundreds of thousands of copies are sold each year—so far more than thirty million. Several new volumes have been published posthumously. Her vision of man and her philosophy for living on earth have changed the lives of thousands of readers and launched a philosophic movement with a growing impact on American culture.

The Ayn Rand Column: Written for the Los Angeles Times

Politics & Social Sciences

RAND, AYN

Politics & Government

Ayn Rand Institute Press

Ayn Rand’s heroic vision of man as a rational, noble, productive being has inspired millions of people. It can be difficult, though, to grasp just how her ideas, universal and abstract as they are, can serve as a practical and specific guide to everyday life. KEEPING IT REAL: BRINGING IDEAS DOWN TO EARTH offers invaluable advice on how to apply broad philosophical principles to the real-world decisions we have to make every day. In this book, Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s longtime friend and heir, provides a wealth of practical counsel on personal relationships, child-rearing, career problems, politics, sex, and many other topics. His answers to hundreds of questions—taken from the first five years of his former podcast—highlight the importance of ensuring that the principles we claim to live by do not float in our minds as useless wordplay, but rather guide us in action toward our personal, selfish happiness here on earth. KEEPING IT REAL also contains numerous anecdotes and insights pertaining to Ayn Rand herself, making it invaluable for those who want to learn more about her from today’s most knowledgeable source.About the AuthorLeonard Peikoff is the preeminent Ayn Rand scholar writing today. He worked closely with Rand in New York City for thirty years and was designated as legal and literary heir to her estate. He has taught philosophy at several places, including Hunter College and New York University, and has lectured throughout the United States. Peikoff is the author of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand; The DIM Hypothesis: Why the Lights of the West Are Going Out; and The Ominous Parallels. He grew up in Western Canada and now lives in Southern California.About the EditorBarry Wood (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2002) is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. He has taught at universities in North Cyprus, the UK, and Turkey, in addition to working for three years as a curator in a major London museum. He lectures and publishes on topics varying from Persian painting to philosophical esthetics. Dr. Wood also edited Leonard Peikoff’s book Objective Communication: Writing, Speaking, and Arguing (2013).

Keeping It Real: Bringing Ideas Down to Earth

Peikoff, Leonard

Parenting & Relationships

Failing To Confront Islamic Terrorism: What Went Wrong After 9/11

Brook, Yaron

Journo, Elan

Ghate, Onkar

Lockitch, Keith

Is it morally good to achieve your own happiness?\nFrom childhood, we’re taught that helping others is the essence of morality. We’re told that acting to benefit someone else is praiseworthy but acting to benefit yourself is not. And most people take this code of ethics for granted. They may not always abide by it, but they don’t doubt its validity. They don’t challenge the premise that to live ethically is to live altruistically.\nThis book challenges it.\nIt shows that people do not fully understand what altruism calls for. It shows that what altruism really demands is not that you respect the rights of others or that you display benevolence toward them. Rather, it demands that you subordinate yourself to them—that you elevate their desires above your own—that you sacrifice your own happiness in order to serve them—that you regard another’s need as a claim against you.\nTo which Peter Schwartz simply asks: Why? Why should you be called upon to suffer so that your neighbor might benefit? Why does the fact that someone needs your money somehow create a moral entitlement to it, while the fact that you’ve earned it does not? There is no logical justification for such an ethics. Why, then, must you allow yourself to be ruled by this tyranny of need?\nThe author then presents an alternative—a moral alternative—to the code of altruism: rational self-interest. He explains why genuine selfishness is not exemplified by the conniving duplicity of a Bernie Madoff. Or by the brutal plundering of an Attila the Hun. Or by the mindless do-whatever-you-feel-like-doing lifestyle of a hedonist. Such people are actually acting against their interests. Instead—Schwartz argues—the truly selfish individual is committed to moral principles. He lives an honest, productive, self-respecting life. He renounces the unearned and deals with people by giving them value for value, to mutual benefit, neither sacrificing himself to others nor others to himself.\nThe Tyranny of Need shows you how to uphold, guilt-free, your moral right to the pursuit of your own happiness.\n[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a revised, expanded edition of a book originally titled In Defense of Selfishness. It includes two entirely new chapters, on the meaning of self-interest as applied to a nation, along with a revised Introduction.]

The Tyranny of Need: Second Expanded Edition

Self-Help

Schwartz, Peter

Happiness

Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct (Short Works from New Ideal)

Bayer, Ben

Philosophy

Illuminating Ayn Rand: Essays from New Ideal, Journal of the Ayn Rand Institute

Bowden, Tom

History

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Books by Ayn Rand Institute Press