Perspective

Rand's upbringing has played a large part in her formation of the theories she presents in The Virtue of Selfishness. Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum in 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, to an upper-middle-class family. While in high school she witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution. After the Communists came to power, her father's pharmacy was nationalized and her family was forced into poverty. Ayn moved to the United States, a country she believed embodied the most ideal political and economic system and trumped the rights of the individual over society.

Rand's experience living in Soviet Russia under a totalitarian, destructive government led her to adopt a philosophy that completely rejects all forms of collectivism and upholds individualism as the only means for human survival. The fact that she was a witness to the transformation of life in Russia after the country was taken over by the Communist leaders dominated...