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Alan Greenspan

Ayn Rand

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (50th Anniversary Edition) Mass Market Paperback – Illustrated, July 15 1986

by Ayn Rand (Author), Nathaniel Branden (Author), Alan Greenspan (Author),

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In this series of essays, Ayn Rand presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.

The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world's collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. Here is a challenging new look at modern society by one of the most provocative intellectuals on the American scene.

This edition includes two articles by Ayn Rand that did not appear in the hardcover edition: “The Wreckage of the Consensus,” which presents the Objectivists’ views on Vietnam and the draft; and “Requiem for Man,” an answer to the Papal encyclical Progresso Populorum.

ISBN-10

0451147952
ISBN-13

978-0451147950
Edition

Illustrated
Publisher

Signet
Publication date

July 15 1986
Language

English
Dimensions

10.49 x 2.31 x 17.15 cm
Print length

416 pages
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Product description

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“One of the most revolutionary and powerful works on capitalism—and on politics—that has ever been published.”—Professor Leonard Peikoff, Barron’s magazine

About the Author

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signet; Illustrated edition (July 15 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0451147952
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451147950
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 198 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.49 x 2.31 x 17.15 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #124,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24 in Politics Reference
- #80 in Political History Textbooks
- #202 in Social Philosophy

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Alan Greenspan
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Alan Greenspan was born in 1926 and reared in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. After studying the clarinet at Juilliard and working as a professional musician, he earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from New York University. In 1954, he cofounded the economic consulting firm Townsend-Greenspan & Co. From 1974 to 1977, he served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Gerald Ford. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in 2006.
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Ayn Rand
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Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936, followed by Anthem. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved spectacular and enduring success. Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience and maintains a lasting influence on popular thought. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in such books as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, and The Romantic Manifesto. Ayn Rand died in 1982.
(Image reproduced courtesy of The Ayn Rand® Institute)
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4.7 out of 5

575 global ratings

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Cory Holly

As Ayn Rand emphasizes throughout this great book, true capitalism is simply a form of ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 9, 2016

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Capitalism is truly unknown to the world, as it has yet to be practiced by the collective in its most pure form without government or military intervention. As Ayn Rand emphasizes throughout this great book, true capitalism is simply a form of free trade based on the moral imperative of personal freedom and the rights of the individual above the state. Barter between friends without deception or coercion is capitalism exemplified.

2 people found this helpful

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Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 5, 2016

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Amazing book.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 28, 2017

This is one of the best collection of ideas I have ever read. The intellectual necessity of anyone who wants to understand the true meaning of liberty, economic and political freedom, the role of government in society and the need to focus on individual rights. Capitalism isn't a dirty word. Mixed economies, socialism, communism, statism and imperialism are dirty words. This book will help you understand why. These articles are written in the 1960's, and they are as true now as they were then. I would say they were prophetic. Excellent reading for anyone who wants to become educated on what is needed, and especially what is not needed, to make this world a better place. Daring Truth.

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S Smyth

Makes sense to me.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 18, 2002

Many of us have been brought up on the idea that capitalism is a system which promotes the domination and exploitation of others by those in pursuit of personal gain. This is not capitalism, it is gangsterism. Capitalism is a philosophy which promotes the right of the free individual to trade with other free individuals without hindrance from the state.
To criticise this book in a negative way is difficult, since neither I nor anybody else has lived in a society based on capitalism. But I have lived in a capitalistic society within the bounds of the United Kingdom. My observation is that the parts of the United Kingdom that tend more towards capitalism are more successful and prosperous than those parts that are not: the southeast of England being the greatest exemplar. Taking a step further, the United States of America with its greater capitalistic tendencies, is demonstrably more successful and prosperous than the United Kingdom.
The clarity of the book is helped by the many examples provided by Ayn Rand and her contributors. Some of these are a bit historical for todayï¿½s readers, and the piece on what a patent applies to has been superseded by the recent allowing of patents for discoveries relating to human and animal gene sequences. A few examples from recent and ongoing state activity would be as follows:
Cuba is regarded by the IMF as the best example of a third world country doing comparatively well by first world standards. But Cuba doesnï¿½t have to be a third world country. Cuba has the human resources to compete perfectly well with the first world if the state were not in total control, as the enterprising Cubans who moved elsewhere have demonstrated.
Zimbabwe has been reduced to a state of hopelessness and starvation because of gangsterism promoted by the state. Even more developed countries like India and Pakistan are borderline cases because their states choose to fritter away in excess of a hundred million dollars a year fighting each over Kashmir, instead of promoting a way for their people to take part in capitalism, and so improve their circumstances. The Palestinian situation is another example where the lack of a capitalist philosophy is creating so much trouble, its leadership preferring to loot and mooch, and gallivant in luxury around the world instead of staying at home and sorting things out.
Where I come from, the economy is totally dependant on handouts from the British Government. This mean that anyone with sense and enterprise has to leave the province because the sources of start-up capital are too busy mooching from the gravy-train of government handouts and other sources of handouts from Europe and the United States ( the international fund for Ireland and the peace process dividend to name two ). And the so called Celtic-Tiger isnï¿½t too far behind.
In England the travelling public and commerce are benefiting from the fiasco that was the piece-meal privatisation of the rail system. This mess has come home to roost with a vengeance, and all because the private operators were being relentlessly interfered with and have ended up as the whipping boy for the state, which should have kept its hands off and let the competitive process do its work. The only good thing, so far, is that Steven Byers, the current transport secretary, got his butt kicked by the City.
Not content with that the education system is to be partially privatised and interfered with. So again, the private part will take the fall for the state.
And the Millennium Dome, what a mess that was. All they would have to have done was leave it be and run the thing as a leisure attraction under its in-place management for a couple more years. After all, the whole site has lain empty for that long, at a cost of a million pounds a month. But then the sate can afford to waste that kind of money, since its not theirs.
Capitalism, as defined in this book, would seem to offer a better way forward than what is currently draining the life blood from the more civilised parts of the world.

2 people found this helpful

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Unique defence of freedom

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 16, 2006

This riveting compilation of 26 essays includes contributions by Alan Greenspan, Nathaniel Branden and Robert Hessen. It is primarily a treatise on the moral aspects of capitalism. The themes revolve around human nature and mankind's relationship to existence. Capitalism is advocated because it is the only system compatible with the life of a rational being.

Rand claims that the classical defenders and modern apologists of capitalism are by default responsible for undermining it. In her view, they are unwilling or unable to fight the battle on moral-philosophical grounds.

The essays provide a plethora of gripping insights and novel angles. Rand detests the idea of using altruism to defend capitalism. She proposes rationality instead, with a ruling principle of justice.

I do not necessarily agree with her on this but I enjoy Rand's scathing criticism of conservatism's perceived fallacies. Her vitriolic dissection of the 3 conservative strains is highly amusing! She identifies and attacks the Religious and the Traditionalists but really unleashes the sharp edge of her scorn on those who defend capitalism from the argument of mankind's depravity.

In the essay Requiem For Man, she savages the encyclical Populorum Progressio by Pope Paul VI, in which she also rips apart the reactions to it by publications like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine.

The book consists of two parts. The first is Theory And History, which includes essays on inter alia war, the persecution of big business, antitrust, gold and economic freedom, property status of the airwaves, and patents and copyrights.

Part two: Current State, includes essays on the anatomy of compromise, the art of smearing, rule by consensus as a form of fascism, and the student rebellion. The final two essays: Man's Rights and The Nature Of Government, appear in the appendix.

Whatever the flaws in Rand's Objectivist philosophy, this book remains a brilliant and unique defence of freedom and capitalism. Moreover, history has proved Rand a prescient thinker who was correct in many of her analyses.

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal ranks among the very best of her non-fiction works. It is highly engaging, thought-provoking and often quite amusing. The book concludes with an index and a bibliography listing titles by Henry Hazlitt, Isabel Paterson and Ludwig von Mises, amongst others.

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

park3r

Capitalism, the only moral system.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 14, 2017

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This is undoubtedly one of my favourite books. It is full of essays, with clear and concise defence of Capitalism. It's a brilliant book for picking up when you have 5 minutes and time to read a quick essay.

I found myself enjoying Alan Greenspan's essays more than I thought. He really could be Dr Stadler. How can a proponent of a Gold Standard then become the head of the immoral, Federal Reserve and then inadvertently help cause the 2008 crises, with the help of Bill Clinton. It truly is Atlas Shrugged coming to life. (Check out John Allison lectures on the financial crises on YouTube. His explanation is truly remarkable and brilliantly explained).

Capitalism is truly the only moral political and economic system. I honestly think, if this book was more widely read, it would change the world.

8 people found this helpful

Damis

A good book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 28, 2011

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The book is a good collection of essays on various points which relate to the main theme of Capitalism. Rand offers a defense of Capitalism and why it is the only system that we know of that yields a great amount of material and civil development whilst retaining and promoting the liberty of the individual. The defense is however offered in the context of her own philosophy and her argument therefore relies upon the premises of her system of morality and rationality. Throughout the work she introduced the concepts of moral 'principle' and 'ideology' and builds a case for why these are important by making examples of various events, citing article extracts and so on in order to analyze and produce her evidence.

The promotion of Capitalism on moral ideals and practical examples are often contrasted against the purported effects of altruistic/Socialist consequences and actions of a controlling government. Rand introduced the term 'Statist' to describe systems and those who ascribe control and planning as means to achieve their goals, in this context the control is mainly economic. I believe Rand and her associates offer a compelling case against political control of the market by examining the direct and indirect negative effects whilst offering in turn the benefits of a free market. In the true Libertarian inspired tradition of concern for the rights of the individual, the ultimate effects of Statist control are portrayed as devastating to the rights and freedom of the individual.

A number of essays included are by Nathaniel Branden and Alan Greenspan. Greenspan provides the backbone of the book through his analysis of the technicalities of a free market system and how it is superior to those who receive government aid, he also provides a potent portrayal of how a mixed economy can be abused through government bureaucratic controls, e.g lobbyists by those who under a free system would be unable to exploit such structures that government interference creates.

Branden himself covers the practical effects on institutions such as education, however I feel that in his arguments he is a little vague as to the ultimate effect that such measures of reform would have. He also covers the topic of 'Alienation' rebutting the Hegelian/Marxist mystic concept of the term and proposing in favour a case for people as being alienated through the lack of self-esteem and happiness due to lack of rational decision and personal freedom. However I feel this is a point so abstract as to perhaps question the concept of 'Alienation' itself.

The whole book therefore rests on the premise that historically Capitalism in it's semi-enabled forms during the 19th century and early twentieth were not exploitative systems of class struggle or disproportionate wealth but rather a revolutionary system of development for all through the ability of rational individuals.

The only weak points that I feel this book has, at least from the view of an acceptance of a majority of Objectivist premises or arguments is that Rand herself begins to repeat the same points frequently in the later chapters, perhaps however it is a means to show the depth of the issues, however I felt that it did impact negatively on the fluidity of the read itself. And also Branden's vagueness as I already mentioned, I feel let the book down, had he been more concise with his conclusions, I could well have rated this book with five stars.

Overall a good book for someone seeking a defense of Capitalism on practical and philosophical grounds.

6 people found this helpful

Karen

A philosophical understanding of Capitalism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 8, 2019

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I found Rand's explanation for the capitalism system very well build and tied up with philosophical principals. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who'd like to go deeper in the basis for the capitalist system.

One person found this helpful

Mr. Vincent Waterfall

This is a fascinating book. Although you might not ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 10, 2015

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This is a fascinating book. Although you might not agree entirely with Ayn Rands views it brings home how governments and organisations manipulate and distort.

2 people found this helpful

Christian Agersund

Brush up

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 20, 2014

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This is definitly a brush up on your old multi syllabal vocabulary. But even though the articles stem from the sixties, they are just as valid today.
Recommend especially "Root of war"

2 people found this helpful

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