Winter 2016 • Vol. 11, No. 4

Happy holidays! And welcome to the Winter 2016–2017 issue of The Objective Standard. As its cover with the delightful photograph of Ayn Rand suggests, this issue is brimming with positive values. (We thought you might need some of those about now.) First up is “Ayn Rand’s Intellectual Development” by Michael S. Berliner. This essay surveys the choices, values, and events that shaped Rand’s intellectual and professional life, from her early childhood years and preteen writing and thinking in czarist Russia; to her university and postgraduate years in Russia following the Revolution; to her life and work on plays, fiction, and nonfiction in Chicago, Hollywood, and New York City. Dr. Berliner, the founding executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute and senior adviser to the Ayn Rand Archives, brings great depth and breadth of knowledge to this subject. The result is a biographical portrait of Ayn Rand like no other. Next up is “The Vindication of Joseph McCarthy” by Andrew Bernstein, which examines the myths and facts surrounding this controversial figure and his efforts to expose communist infiltration into the U.S. government in the 1950s. Marshaling substantial evidence that has become available during the past few decades, Dr. Bernstein shows McCarthy to be not a villain but a hero.. . . Continue »