Library

A selection of readings offered as background for research and public education on individual rights, liberty, and systems of social and economic organization. The list is not exhaustive, and listing a work here does not imply endorsement of every idea it contains. Some entries discuss anarchism, communism, or socialism, which Objectivism rejects.

For movement-oriented resources on founding a new country, see the Anthemism library.

Sovereignty and institutional design

Historical and comparative sources on self-government, special jurisdictions, and political founding. Listed for research and public education; not a plan or endorsement of any contemporary project.

Special jurisdictions and comparative governance

Books
  • The Hawksbill Creek Agreement — Sir Hugh Wooding CBE et al. Amazon
  • Your Next Government? — Tom W. Bell Amazon
  • The Atlas of Unusual Borders — Zoran Nikolic Amazon
Articles

Zionism (comparative case study)

Russia (state formation and collapse)

  • Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture (2022) — Janusz Bugajski Amazon
  • The Russian Revolutions of 1917 — John Shelton Curtiss Amazon

Early America (founding documents)

Objectivism

Books

  • For the New Intellectual — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • The Virtue of Selfishness — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • The Return of the Primitive — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • Ayn Rand Letter — Ayn Rand Amazon
  • The Letters of Ayn Rand — ed. Michael Berliner Amazon
  • Ayn Rand Answers — ed. Robert Mayhew Amazon
  • The Tyranny of Need — Peter Schwartz Amazon
  • Libertarianism: The Perversion of Liberty — Peter Schwartz ARI eStore
  • The Objectivist Forum (all issues) — HB Letter
  • Why the Right to Abortion Is Sacrosanct — Ben Bayer Amazon

Essays

  • Ayn Rand Speaks — introduction and resources Article
  • Libertarianism vs. Liberty — Peter Schwartz HuffPost
  • Sorry Libertarian Anarchists, Capitalism Requires Government — Harry Binswanger Forbes
  • For Open Immigration — Harry Binswanger HB Letter
  • Objectivism vs. Anarchism — Harry Binswanger HB Letter
  • Abortion Rights — Ben Bayer New Ideal

Periodicals

Podcasts and video

Economics and related
  • Economics in One Lesson — Henry Hazlitt Kindle
  • The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure — John Allison Amazon
  • A Treatise on Political Economy (1803) — Jean-Baptiste Say Econlib
  • On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) — David Ricardo Econlib
  • Two Treatises of Government — John Locke Kindle
  • The Law — Frédéric Bastiat Kindle

Fiction

Books

  • Anthem — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • The Fountainhead — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • We the Living — Ayn Rand Kindle
  • The Island of Crimea — Vasily Aksyonov Amazon
  • Foundation — Isaac Asimov Kindle
  • The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood Kindle
  • The Shipwreck Island — Alexander Belyaev Kindle
  • Planet of the Apes — Pierre Boulle Kindle
  • The Martian Chronicles — Ray Bradbury Kindle
  • Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe Kindle
  • Daniel Deronda — George Eliot Kindle
  • Lord of the Flies — William Golding Kindle
  • The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress — Robert A. Heinlein Kindle
  • Dune — Frank Herbert Kindle
  • Les Misérables — Victor Hugo Kindle
  • Brave New World — Aldous Huxley Kindle
  • Mowgli (The Jungle Book) — Rudyard Kipling Kindle
  • The Dispossessed — Ursula K. Le Guin Kindle
  • 1984 — George Orwell Kindle
  • The Prometheus Frontier — Kevin Osborne Kindle
  • Hard to Be a God — Strugatsky Amazon
  • Looking for Hugh — Leon Weinstein Kindle
  • The Time Machine — H. G. Wells Kindle

Short Stories

  • The Lottery — Shirley Jackson Kindle
  • Heart of the Wilderness — Alexander Grin Kindle

Essays

  • Anthem in the Context of Related Literary Works — New Ideal

Film