The Voice of Reason

Between 1961, when she gave her first talk at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston, and 1981, when she gave the last talk of her life in New Orleans, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as varied as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces, written in the last decades of Rand's life, are gathered in book form for the first time. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor. The work concludes with Peikoff's epilogue, "My Thirty Years With Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir," which answers the question "What was Ayn Rand really like?" Important reading for all thinking individuals, Rand's later writings reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. This collection communicates not only Rand's singular worldview, but also the penetrating cultural and political analysis to which it gives rise.The Voice of Reason - Essays in Objectivist Thought by Ayn Rand Edited and with Additional Essays by Leonard Peikoff

Introductionby Leonard Peikoff
Part One: Philosophy
1. Introducing Objectivism
2. Review of Aristotle by John Herman Randall, Jr.
3. To Young Scientists
4. Who Is the Final Authority in Ethics?
5. The Psychology of Psychologizing
6. Altruism as Appeasement
7. The Question of Scholarships
8. Of Living Death
9. Religion vs. America - by Leonard Peikoff
Part Two: Culture
10. The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age
11. Our Cultural Value-Deprivation
12. Global Balkanization
13. How to Read (and Not to Write)
14. The Lessons of Vietnam
15. The Sanction of the Victims
16. Through Your Most Grievous Fault
17. Apollo 11
18. Epitaph for a Culture
19. Assault from the Ivory Tower: The Professors' War Against America - by Leonard Peikoff
20. The American School: Why Johnny Can't Think - by Leonard Peikoff
Part Three: Politics
21. Representation Without Authorization
22. To Dream the Noncommercial Dream
23. Tax Credits for Education
24. Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason
25. The Pull Peddlers
26. About a Woman President
27. The Inverted Moral Priorities
28. Hunger and Freedom
29. How Not to Fight Against Socialized Medicine
30. Medicine: The Death of a Profession - by Leonard Peikoff
31. Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty - by Peter Schwartz
Epilogue: My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir - by Leonard Peikoff

Born February 2, 1905, Ayn Rand published her first novel, We the Living, in 1936. Anthem followed in 1938. It was with the publication of The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) that she achieved her spectacular success. Rand’s unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are put forth in three nonfiction books, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtues of Selfishness, and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. They are all available in Signet editions, as is the magnificent statement of her artistic credo, The Romantic Manifesto.