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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com166WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968craftsmanship, her insight into the dynamics of free markets. Studentsand younger readers thrilled to her heroic characters and were overjoyedto discover the comprehensive and consistent philosophy ofObjectivism. The aftermath of the book’s publication taught Rand thatshe was truly on her own. Her path to intellectual prominence wouldnot be typical, conventional, or easy. In retrospect, it seems obvious:Rand would do it her way.Taken at the level of a story, Atlas Shrugged is a moral fable about theevils of government interference in the free market. The novel is setin a dystopian world on the brink of ruin, due to years of liberal policymakingand leadership. The aggrandizing state has run amok andcollectivism has triumphed across the globe. Rand’s decaying Americaresembles the Petrograd of her youth. The economy begins to crumbleunder the pressure of socialist policies, and food shortages, industrialaccidents, and bankruptcies become commonplace. Gloom and dreadpervade the country. Fatalistic and passive, citizens can only shrugand ask the empty question, a catchphrase of the novel, “Who is JohnGalt?”Rand shows us this world through the eyes of two primary characters,Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden. Both are gifted and inventivebusiness owners who struggle to keep their enterprises afloat despitean ever-growing burden of government regulation. Starting off as businesspartners, the single Dagny and married Hank soon become lovers.Strong, handsome, and dynamic, Dagny and Hank contrast sharplywith Rand’s villains, soft and paunchy government bureaucrats and corruptbusiness owners who seek favors from the politicians they havebought. Dagny and Hank’s enemies begin with laws that restrict competition,innovation, and cross-ownership of businesses, and by the end ofthe novel have nationalized railroads and the steel industry. In a detailreminiscent of Soviet show trials, when the government expropriatesprivate property it forces the owners to sign a “gift certificate” framingthe action as a patriotic donation.Rebelling against this strangulation by the state, the creative minds ofAmerica go “on strike,” and throughout the course of the story all competentindividuals in every profession disappear. Until they are granted