• Atlas Shrugged

  • By: Ayn Rand
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (18,470 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Atlas Shrugged  By  cover art

Atlas Shrugged

By: Ayn Rand
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $23.36

Buy for $23.36

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.

In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world—and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book.

Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who had never heard capitalism defended in other than technical terms.

©1985 Eugene Winick, Paul Gitlin and Leonard Peikoff (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Atlas Shrugged

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13,587
  • 4 Stars
    2,733
  • 3 Stars
    1,097
  • 2 Stars
    500
  • 1 Stars
    553
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11,709
  • 4 Stars
    2,186
  • 3 Stars
    789
  • 2 Stars
    252
  • 1 Stars
    262
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11,417
  • 4 Stars
    2,164
  • 3 Stars
    840
  • 2 Stars
    373
  • 1 Stars
    453

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic!

i was surprised that i was finished with it so quickly. i was expecting it to take me forever to finish! very captivating book, its a must read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Must read for thinkers

After reading, I wished I had taken a class based on the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Changed My Outlook On Politics

I was a liberal prior to reading this book. Rand nailed it! She describes human behavior so accurately that it is scary. You come away from this book with the realization that all the crap you have been force fed through your life is just that: crap. Government is not your friend, human ingenuity is the only thing worth appreciating, if you want your economy to prosper you best get out of the way of the ambitious folks who make it work.

Best audio book I have ever downloaded. It made my long runs much more tolerable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful Reader for 63 hours

The story is classic. The reader is exceptional - I want more books by Scott Brick. Here, Scott creates several different voices for different characters and engages the listener for the entire 63 hours. Pacing and tone were perfect. Wonderful read/listen. Great clean recording, diction and color - and that's important for a 63 hour book. Story is thought-provoking if not outrageous - and just real enough to imagine, at least parts of it, taking place in modern times. "Novel" introduction to Objectivism. Easy to listen to - again and again, down the road.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Unbelievable!

Ayn Rand seems to be a psychic, I see our whole government in this audible book. The book pissed me off because it is so true of today's world and the government's answer to dispersing the wealth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I forgot what a wonderful book this was.......

I read this book over 30 years ago and loved it but I am absolutely LOVING having it read to me. I think it is quite applicable to what we are experiencing today in the US... GREAT WRITER, GREAT BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

An incredable book

This book should be required reading for all college students and presidential candidates. At times it is wordy but overall a fascinating read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

No Way I Can Finish This

I've made it through two parts of this book, then decided to quit torturing myself. I feel like I have been beaten about the head and shoulders with such a flagrant political statement that I've lost the book. It has become repetitive, predictable and boring.

I don't mind a book with a political statement as long as it's an interesting book and the author doesn't insist on cramming their opinion down my throat. There is no subtlety in this book...just cramming.

Another wasted credit!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Atlas Shrugged

I must agree with several others who have submitted a review. The reading by Scott Brick is almost impossible to take seriously. He clearly does not comprehend the characters as Rand presented them. I have read this book as well as listened to the other audio version several times and there is no comparison. I've only finished the first section of the Brick version, and I am not sure I'll be able to finish the balance...it's that bad!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Changed my perspective

Ever since Ronald Reagan was President I knew that politics, economics, business, and taxes were all completely interdependent, but could not explain how. This book shows how when a government takes upon itself the authority to regulate even opportunity it will louse up the works, and how the committed capitalist producers will let the country fail if forced to produce while being denied the rightful fruits of that production. Property is private by right, not the grant of societies permission; life is by right of existence, not by grace of murderers who would seize the results of a man's thought.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful