Goddess of the Market

Formative Events

Alisa Rosenbaum turned 12 as the Russian Revolution unfurled in 1917. She was the daughter of a chemist and his emotionally charged wife. Alisa’s family of five lived in St. Petersburg and had servants and a summerhouse in Crimea, until the revolution shattered their lives. Her father lost his business and in the mid-1920s, after selling their last heirlooms, the family faced starvation.

Alisa was unusual, unforgiving, unrelenting, always uneasy with small talk and convinced she was a “child of destiny.” In high school, she found the first rudiments of a belief system: the heroic notion of the individual and the beguiling power of reason. At tuition-free Petrograd State University, she experienced diversity and Marxism. The writings of Nietzsche captured her imagination. When Russia exiled anti-Marxist students and professors, she was forced to withdraw for a time but “the policy was later reversed and she returned.”

Hollywood movies instilled in Rand an overwhelming desire to go to America. In 1926, after months of family intrigues, she left Russia. She arrived at the home of cousins in Chicago with a new name made from an abbreviation of her...