Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Marlene PodritskeEditor: Peter Schwartz
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-16
ISBN: 0739131958
Number of pages: 282
Publisher: Lexington Books
Book Reviews of Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed
Book Review: A fine Introduction to Rand's thought
Summary: 5 Stars
This book, published some 26 years after Ayn Rand's death, was not intended to be an introduction to her philosophical thought, but it turns out to be just that.
After the publication of her inspiring novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, novelist and philosopher, was invited many times to be interviewed on television, at universities, and on radio. The audio and video versions of those interviews have long been available from scattered sources. Here they are gathered togerher and edited by the excellent hands of Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz (former Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, www.aynrand.org).
The editors include 3 interviews of Ayn Rand in her early days in America, while in the movie industry, which have not been available before. The "On Campus" interviews are organized by subject, covering Rand's Objectivist philosophy vx. Conservatism, the topid of "extremism", anti-capitalist myths, Rand's view on the American Constitution and the political structure of a free society. She speaks on a quiet subject that is coming to make all the difference in this country, objective law. She speaks on what should be America's free press, education, her views on Romantic literature vs. Naturalism, the visual arts, her favorite play and paintings (some surprises here!). She advances a theory of humor, then gets into the heavier areas of ethics, its foundations, its sabotage by altruism, individual rights as the bridge to politics. The last section of the book, offering interviews from 1959 up to 1981, just a few months before her death, includes interviews with Mike Wallace, Professonr James McConell at University of Michigan, two on the Johnny Carson show, in which he shows himself to be a gentleman and much more than a comedian, Edwin Newman of Speaking Freely, James Day, Raymond Newman and Louis Rukeyser, the financial advisor. The book finishes with an interview of Ayn Rand's intellectual heir, Leonard Peikoff, not only a teacher of philosophy but a philosopher himself (see his work on the foundation of induction) by his wife, Amy Peikoff.
Not included are Rand's famous Playboy interview and a few others published elsewhere. One does not get anything in this book on Rand's metaphysics or epistemology, but those are technical issues that would not come up in such a venue.
We can be thankful for this look into Rand's self-confident speaking style, her thoughtful and alert response to unscripted questions. For an introduction to Rand's views on art, politics and her presentation of her revolutionary ethics, this book can serve as a way to get someone who has only heard of her started in an exploration of the philosophical mind of this amazing woman. For those who are quite familiar with her published writings, I have to tell you that you will find some unexpected nuggets of her thought that you don't find elsewhere. A good addition to The Ayn Rand Library.
Summary of Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed
Readers and students of Ayn Rand will value seeing in this collection of interviews how Ayn Rand applied her philosophy and moral principles to the issues of the day. Objectively Speaking includes half a century of print and broadcast interviews drawn from the Ayn Rand Archives. The thirty-two interviews in this collection, edited by Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, include print interviews from the 1930s and edited transcripts of radio and television interviews from the 1940s through 1981. Selections are included from a remarkable series of radio broadcasts over a four-year period (1962-1966) on Columbia University's station WKCR in New York City and syndicated throughout the United States and Canada. Ayn Rand's unusual and strikingly original insights on a vast range of topics are captured by prominent interviewers in the history of American television broadcasting, such as Johnny Carson, Edwin Newman, Mike Wallace, and Louis Rukeyser. The collection concludes with an interview of Dr. Leonard Peikoff on his radio program in 1999, recalling his 30-year personal and professional association with Ayn Rand and discussing her unique intellectual and literary achievements. Ayn Rand is the best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living. Fifty years or more after publication, sales of these novels continue to increase.Authors Books
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