The Ayn Rand Column: A collection of her weekly newspaper articles, written for the Los Angeles Times, with additional little-known essays by Ayn Rand. (Peter Schwartz, editor)

In 1962 Ayn Rand accepted an invitation to write a weekly column in the Los Angeles Times, and from events and controversies that have by now faded from the news, she was able to draw timeless lessons. Commenting on the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example, she identified the inevitable consequences of President Kennedy’s appeasement—at home and abroad. About the Algerian civil war, she observed: “A majority without an ideology is a helpless mob, to be taken over by anyone.” And about socialistic policies espoused by liberals and conservatives, she noted that “no one’s welfare can be achieved by anyone’s sacrifice.”

The 26 columns range widely in topic—from a celebration of Victor Hugo’s novel Ninety-three and Britain’s entry into the (European) Common Market to the causes of war and peace.

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commentary—which is stale and irrelevant just days, or hours after it is written—virtually nothing of hers becomes outdated,” explains the editor’s introduction.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.”

Table of contents

• Introduction by Peter Schwartz
• The Ayn Rand Column
  1. Introducing Objectivism
  2. War and Peace
  3. Progress or Sacrifice
  4. The New Enemies of “The Untouchables”
  5. An Intellectual Coup d’État
  6. “The Cold Civil War”
  7. Government by Intimidation
  8. Let Us Alone!
  9. Just Suppose
  10. Through Your Most Grievous Fault
  11. An Open Letter to My Readers
  12. Mickey Spillane
  13. “The Dying Victim of Berlin”
  14. Ninety-Three
  15. Blind Chaos
  16. The Man-Haters
  17. The Season of Platitudes
  18. Our Alleged Competitor
  19. Britain’s “National Socialism”
  20. Nationalism vs. Internationalism
  21. The Cuban Crisis
  22. Post-Mortem, 1962
  23. How to Demoralize a Nation
  24. Freedom of Speech
  25. The Munich of World War III?
  26. Vandalism
• Other Writings
  1. The Only Path to Tomorrow
  2. The First Amendment and “Symbolic Speech”
  3. The Secular Meaning of Christmas
  4. Favorite Writers
  5. Questions and Answers on Anthem
  6. Why I Like Stamp Collecting
• Index

(Softcover; 129 pages)

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