Ayn Rand`s and Objectivism`s success

[A.A]

I plan on writing an academic paper about AR to a course on "books that made history". In the paper I intend to use Atlas Shrugged quotes to explain how revolutionary her philosophy was. My professor has almost no knowledge of AR; he had read The Fountainhead when he was a teenager, remembers it as quite childish and a pale copy of Nietzsche, and told me that he believed that in a hundred years, while everyone will know Nietzsche's name, no one will know AR`s. He agreed to my suggestion never the less, and he strikes me as an honest man who will; but his initial attitude makes me think I will have to substantiate AR`s influence on society better than I would have to for a professor with a different initial attitude.

So my question is: Where are there good sources which indicate AR`s success and influence, that do not look like Objectivist pamphlets? Sources other than the ARI website, or OPAR?

Thanks in advance for any possible help.

Edited March 1, 2007 by A.A

[softwareNerd]

It would be interesting to identify a few authors who were contemporaries of Ayn Rand, who wrote books of a philosophical bent, that sold well in the 1960s and 70s. One would have to be scrupulously honest in choosing people who can be compared. It would be interesting to know which one's continue to be popular the way Rand still is, and which ones had their decade in the sun and then faded away. I figure one could even look to other influential authors: Keynes, for instance.

I suppose it's difficult to work out a popularity-comparison with Nietzsche, except by extrapolating way into the future. If one takes the growth of Objectivism up to this point and extrapolate it, Rand would come out tops. The question your professor would have is: why should we expect that trend to continue for Rand when it did not continue for so many others.

For current popularity rates on the internet one could set up Google Alerts for the author's names and philosophies. One could also do Google news searches and blog searches to get some idea of popularity in that sphere.

[Hakarmaskannar]

These might not be what you are looking for but are worth taking a look at. This site is heavily influenced by Miss Rand's philosophy and quite a number of authors here refer to her works and, implicitly or explicitly, many share her world-view due to their beiing exposed to her revolutionary system of thinking.

I hope they are useful and good luck with your paper.

[Spano]

If you're looking for examples of AR's influence on popular culture, you could search for examples of politicians, businessmen, and other well-known people who have professed to be influenced by her ideas.

[Scott_Connery]

There was also the library of congress study that claimed Atlas Shrugged was rated as the second most influential book after the bible.