University donations from the BB&T Foundation requiring that a course include Ayn Rand?s Atlas Shrugged are getting attention, locally and nationally. Most recently, the Charlotte Observer wrote three stories on the topic. They are generally fair and well-reported.
It?s interesting that it takes a $1 million donation to get some schools to notice a 50-year-old book that 1) still sells 185,000 copies a year, 2) was written by an author who has an academic journal dedicated to her work (The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies), 3) who was an atheist, to boot, and 4) has powerful heroines the study of whom could probably revive some dying women?s studies departments. Hatred of capitalism must run very deep.
