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[[Tax]]ation during this period consisted primarily of the [[income tax]], which in actual fact had recently been ratified as a valid [[Constitution of the United States|Constitutional]] option. Though the confiscatory (up to 94%) tax rates of the Great Depression era would await the administration of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], they could easily have been enacted into law earlier, during the hypothetical Thompson administration. Many other taxes, some of them completely ''ad hoc'', are applied at one time or another in the course of the novel.
[[Tax]]ation during this period consisted primarily of the [[income tax]], which in actual fact had recently been ratified as a valid [[Constitution of the United States|Constitutional]] option. Though the confiscatory (up to 94%) tax rates of the Great Depression era would await the administration of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], they could easily have been enacted into law earlier, during the hypothetical Thompson administration. Many other taxes, some of them completely ''ad hoc'', are applied at one time or another in the course of the novel.
==Criticism==
: ''Main Article: [[Atlas Shrugged (criticism)]]''
''Atlas Shrugged'' has never been a critical favorite. Indeed, [[Barbara Branden]], as quoted by Harold Leiendecker<ref name=Leiendecker>Leiendecker H, "Atlas Shrugged," ASPEC Writers' Workshop, n.d. Accessed May 5, 2009. <http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/writers/atlas_shrugged.htm></ref>:{{cquote|The reviews of ''[[We the Living]]'' had been bad. The reviews of ''[[The Fountainhead]]'' has been worse. The reviews of ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'' were savage.}}
Not all the reviews were savage, but most of them were. Even [[conservative]] reviewers spoke scathingly of it; for example, [[Whittaker Chambers]] said of it that every page screams, "To a gas chamber—go!"<ref name=chambers>Chambers W, "Big Sister Is Watching You," ''National Review'', December 28, 1957. Hosted at National Review Online, published January 5, 2005. Accessed May 1, 2009. <http://www.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback200501050715.asp></ref> [[Nathaniel Branden]] said of it, among other things, that it taught emotional repression as a virtue.<ref name=branden>Branden N, "The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand," audio presentation, 1984. Transcript hosted at <http://www.nathanielbranden.com/catalog/articles_essays/benefits_and_hazards.html>.</ref>
Leiendecker, however, reminds us that many of the nefarious laws and "directives" that the novel mentions have in fact come to pass. His chief criticism was that the dialog (and in, [[John Galt]]'s memorable case, monolog) of the heroes and anti-villains of the work often sounds "stilted," while the words of the villains ring true to their respective real-life anti-types.<ref name=Leiendecker/>
==Film Adaptation==
==Film Adaptation==
== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
== External link ==
* [http://atlasshrugged.com/ Atlas Shrugged] Official site designed and published by [http://aynrand.org/ The Ayn Rand Institute]
{{nb Atlas}}
{{nb Atlas}}
[[category:Novels]]
[[category:Novels]]