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Return of the Primitive  By  cover art

Return of the Primitive

By: Ayn Rand,Peter Schwartz
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
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Publisher's summary

In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left, a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.

While the New Left achieved limited political success, it brought about vast cultural changes that remain with us to this day. The reason is that while its representatives faced some political opposition, they faced little-to-no fundamental intellectual opposition.

Ayn Rand was the exception. In her essays from this period, anthologized in The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, she opposed the New Left as no one else did. The audience for the book, she wrote, is "all those who are concerned about college students and about the state of modern education" and who are seeking "a voice of reason to turn to".

In her essays, Ayn Rand identified the essential evils of the New Left and their cause. Where most viewed the New Left and its violent college protests, its worship of untouched nature, and its orgiastic mob celebrations as some sort of inexplicable, youthful rebellion against the "establishment", Ayn Rand identified these "rebels" as in fact dutiful, consistent practitioners of the ideas taught to them by their teachers.

Return of the Primitive is an expanded edition of The New Left. It features the entire contents of the original edition authorized by Ayn Rand, plus two of her other essays, "Racism" and "Global Balkanization", which are highly relevant to today's campuses and world. Additionally, it features three essays written after her death by Peter Schwartz, analyzing some of the ideologies that the New Left helped spawn, such as multiculturalism and environmentalism.

For those who seek to understand the state of American culture today, Return of the Primitive is required reading.

©1999 Peter Schwartz (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about Return of the Primitive

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Extreemly relevant to our current climate

Ayn's razor sharp depiction of the mind set underlying the anti progress progressive green movement is a must listen. Schwartz's essay are passable, though perhaps less intellectually rigorous. Keep in mind this is not an entertaining audiobook. It is a glimpse at a political movement, it's conceptual foundation and the circumstances surrounding their "revolution"

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Why are progressives like they are?

If you want to get an understanding on why progressives and liberals spend their lives denying reality you must read "Comprachicos" and "The Age of Envy". I think these are two Ayn Rand's best essays. And this is saying a lot!

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic

This is the best non-fiction book by Rand that I have ever heard or read. It is more accurately a collection of essays. They are more personally written than most she has written and display an insight into human psychology that is no less than profound. This book lays to rest any claim that she was a detached intellectual that lectured from her idealistic, unrealistic ivory tower and instead shows she was sensitive, thoughtful, and in tune with others' feelings. Rand's goal was to advocate a philosophy that can rescue Western Civilization from itself - should we choose the very un-altruistic path of standing up for it.

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14 people found this helpful

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Must read for anyone who votes

these concepts are timeless. this could have been written yesterday and is really an enlightening read.

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8 people found this helpful

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Intelligent and concise

What more can I say? The narrator was very fluid and quite easy to listen into the evening.

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazingly insightful and prophetic

Wonderful book.

The narrator occasionally repeats the last sentence. This seems to be an editing error. It happens infrequently enough to be a minute annoyance rather than an impediment to enjoying the book.

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5 people found this helpful

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Things worse now

Things have continued to get worse since it was written in around 1970. One current irrationality is the endeavour to encourage inflation by inflating the money supply which negates the benefits of use of technology to increase production to make more goods and services available at lower prices

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4 people found this helpful

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Thr Most Applicable Rand volume

By far the most applicable collection of Rands essays pertaining to today. Topics range from the mental destruction of progressive education to the nihilist roots of multiculturalism. And, as usual, Ms. Dunne is the best narrator of Rand's work I've heard.

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3 people found this helpful

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We are now repeating the past, important read!

I'm sure many people that hear this book will be shocked to hear that what is happening now in the world and America has happened before . Older people remember when this was going on, and have tried to warn this generation but lack of respect for the older people has caused their warnings to fall on deaf ears. Those that deny, hide, or try to remove the past are doomed to repeat the Past! I suggest your next read be Anthem.

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2 people found this helpful

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Hillary's Demise

After hearing this book the week of Oct23, 2016, I can understand how Hillary Clinton, the wife of Impeached, BJ Clinton can label me a foolish followed of Ian Randy! We were given a Constitutional Republic with the requirement to maintain her with "Enlightened Citizens". Please join in our Self-educating!

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2 people found this helpful