The novel has been cited as an influence on a variety of libertarian and conservative thinkers and politicians. The novel ends with the strikers planning to build a new capitalist society based on Galt's philosophy.Ītlas Shrugged received largely negative reviews, but achieved enduring popularity and ongoing sales in the following decades. They discover that a mysterious figure called John Galt is persuading other business leaders to abandon their companies and disappear as a strike of productive individuals against the looters.

Railroad executive Dagny Taggart and her lover, steel magnate Hank Rearden, struggle against 'looters' who want to exploit their productivity.

The book depicts a dystopian United States in which private businesses suffer under increasingly burdensome laws and regulations. The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism, including reason, property rights, individualism, libertarianism and capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw as the failures of governmental coercion. Rand described the theme of Atlas Shrugged as 'the role of man's mind in existence'. Atlas Shrugged includes elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance, and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.

Atlas shrugged and the fountainhead