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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com102FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957libertarianism and a quasi–think tank, complete with a lecture seriesand educational programs. Stepping into an ideological vacuum, withina few years Read was able to “set the tone of the Southern Californianbusiness community,” as one historian observes. 5Read’s activities built on larger trends shaping the region and thenation. With the war at its end and the economy recovering, businessconservatives began to mount organized opposition to the New Dealorder. Chief among their targets was organized labor. A wave of strikesand slow-downs that swept the country in 1945 was their opportunity.Business owners argued that labor had gained too much power and wasbecoming a dangerous, antidemocratic force. On the state level “right towork” laws, which outlawed the closed shop and other union-friendlymeasures, became political flashpoints, particularly in the fast growingsunbelt region. 6 These initiatives were matched by developmentson the national level. In 1947 the conservative Eightieth Congress overrodePresident Truman’s veto to pass the Taft-Hartley Act, a piece oflegislation that rolled back many of the gains labor had made duringRoosevelt’s administration. Hoiles and Mullendore were emblematic ofthis new militancy, both taking a hard line when strikes hit the companiesthey managed.Read, Mullendore, and Hoiles rightly recognized Rand as a writerwhose work supported their antiunion stance. It had not escaped theirnotice that The Fountainhead’s villain Ellsworth Toohey is a union organizer,head of the Union of Wynand Employees. Read and Mullendorealso suspected that Rand’s more abstract formulations would resonatewith businessmen. The two had a small side business, Pamphleteers,Inc., devoted to publishing material that supported individualism andfree competitive enterprise. When Rand showed them a copy of Anthem,which had not been released in the United States, they decided to publishit in their series. As Read and Mullendore anticipated, Anthem waseagerly picked up by a business readership. Rand received admiringletters from readers at the National Economic Council and Fight forFree Enterprise, and another Los Angeles conservative group, SpiritualMobilization, presented a radio adaptation in its weekly broadcast. 7Anthem and The Fountainhead became particularly appealing tobusiness readers in the wake of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which permittedemployers to educate their employees about economic and business