The Journey of Dagny Taggart: A Commentary on Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged: Volume 2

If Capitalism has a gospel, it must be Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the robust defense of the entrepreneur as the engine of human progress. Like any great gospel, it deserves a comprehensive commentary that delves deeply into the text, extracting fascinating insights and overlooked details. The Journey of Dagny Taggart is the most detailed, publicly available analysis of Ayn Rand’s international bestseller novel, Atlas Shrugged, yet published. This two-volume commentary features a chapter-by-chapter, page-by-page literary study of her massive and exciting story. It provides numerous significant, often-overlooked insights into Rand’s literary techniques and plot development, as well as many references to how Rand’s life in New York and Hollywood influenced the novel’s narrative details. The commentary includes an introduction that describes Ayn Rand’s background, chapter summaries, scene summaries, and four appendices, one of which examines specific thematic passages in Atlas Shrugged. Cookinham added a recurring themes index, timeline, and list of the novel’s most significant characters. Frequently focusing on high-quality literary passages, the author easily refutes criticisms of Rand’s writing abilities from political opponents, many of whom have never read the book. Ayn Rand’s exquisite political thriller and brilliant philosophical adventure has sold millions of copies worldwide and, for decades, has influenced many high-ranking government officials, political figures, think-tankers, and academics. Unlike some reviews of Atlas Shrugged, Cookinham says the book should be examined as a romantic novel about the philosophical transition of Dagny Taggart through three love affairs rather than as a political manifesto. He demonstrates through the commentary that Rand is a novelist of extraordinary skill and deserves to be treated as such.