She was born more than a century ago in Russia, but today the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand is one of the most powerful intellectual forces in American politics. Speaker of the House of Represantatives Paul Ryan has called her books "the reason I went into public service." President Trump said her novel "The Fountainhead" was one of his favorites. And many of Trump's most prominent team members – including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and CIA director Mike Pompeo – are also fans of Ayn Rand. Year in and year out, her books command a broad popular audience. Combined annual sales of all her books hover around the million mark. Not bad for a writer whose last major work was published in 1957!
What explains the lasting influence of Ayn Rand among American conservatives? And what can her perennial popularity tell us about where the new Trump administration might be headed? » | Guest contribution by Jennifer Burns, Stanford | Monday, February 27, 2017
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