Jennifer Burns discusses and signs Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right October 5, 2009

Goddess of the Market is an intellectual biography of Ayn Rand, the bestselling author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Rand’s ideas have been front and center in recent debates over the financial crisis. Some blame Rand’s celebration of free markets for the catastrophe, pointing to her long relationship with Alan Greenspan; others claim her fiction predicts both the bailout and the dire consequences sure to follow. Burns will read from her book and discuss how Rand’s powerful novels have shaped our understanding of capitalism, markets, and the government’s role in the economy.

"Burns, who is not an objectivist, spent 8 years researching the development of Rand's thinking and principles, and she has produced a terrific book -- a serious consideration of Rand's ideas, and her role in the conservative movement of the past three quarters of a century, that is empty of academic jargon and accessible to those unfamiliar with Rand's life or ideas."--The American Thinker

Jennifer Burns is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia. She has published extensively on the history of conservative thought, and her podcasted lectures on American history have won an appreciative worldwide audience.

Official Website: http://www.keplers.com