Morton's review:

This book has been described as a very long essay in the guise of a very long novel.  It is one of the most devastating critiques ever written of big government and the liberal media.  Rand's moral indignation is contagious; after reading her, most readers are forever immune to the enticements of socialism.

It must also be said, however, that the militantly atheistic Rand had an unrealistic view of human nature and little appreciation for cultural values.  Most people, however mesmerized by her they may be in their youth, outgrow Rand's philosophy, which Burke might have described as a theoretical construct rather than an application of the accumulated wisdom of mankind.

After reading Atlas Shrugged, read also The Fatal Conceit, by F.A. Hayek.  Hayek once told me, 'I am not religious, but I have a great respect for religion.'  Hayek, along with Burke, who was a Christian, possessed an understanding of human nature much deeper and more realistic than Ayn Rand's.