Atlas Shrugged is iconic for freedom lovers, even those who aren't uber-Libertarians in full embrace of Ayn Rand. Like Roger I read the book in the early '60s for the first time. If not taken literally it's very predictive as well as historical.

Some suggestions for those yet to read that will make it easier to consume. First, reading the long version can be daunting because of size, though it's a reasonably well crafted story. About 3/4 of the way through John Galt launches off into a speech that ends up at 100 pages give or take depending on the printing size. If you don't have the gist of the book by then the speech won't convince you anyway.........my recommendation is skip the speech and finish the story...........makes the book more easily digested.

For those wishing a shorter version (what we used to call the Reader's Digest version) there's something called Sparknotes, it's called a study guide and is a reasonable good condensation of the story line: Sparnotes.com You lose some of the lore of the full novel, but it might fit a tight schedule better.