Ayn Rand’s complicated notoriety as popular writer, leader of a
political and philosophical cult, reviled intellectual, and
ostentatious public figure endured beyond her death in 1982. In the
twenty-first century, she has been resurrected as a serious reference
point for mainstream figures, especially those on the political right
from Paul Ryan to Donald Trump. Mean Girl follows Rand’s
trail through the twentieth century from the Russian Revolution to
the Cold War and traces her posthumous appeal and the influence of
her novels via her cruel, surly, sexy heroes. Outlining the impact of
Rand’s philosophy of selfishness, Mean Girl illuminates the Randian
shape of our neoliberal, contemporary culture of greed and the
dilemmas we face in our political present.