Arts & Culture

Declassified tells the stories not only of the loves and losses of Beethoven and Brahms but of the heartbreak of a young musician who built a life for herself atop the expectations of others—and who, in the wake of inevitable disappointment, learned to salvage her love of classical music and spotlight its value for all to see.

Both Mike Rowe and Ayn Rand understand the necessity—and virtue—of personal responsibility. Their work offers powerful guidance for individuals to effect positive change in their own lives and beyond.

If you love paintings—and even if you don’t—I think you’ll get immense value from How to ‘Read’ and Enjoy Paintings. In this course, renowned art appreciation expert Luc Travers will show you his unique approach to analyzing paintings and teach you skills that will deepen your enjoyment of art for life.

Art is like a lantern that we use to illuminate and clarify, spotlighting what’s important in life. Romantic Realism is a particular way of using that light, to see both what is and what could be. I now realize it is far more than just a theory of art—it is a whole approach to life.

Rational people prize impartiality, fairness, and reasoned debate. The “woke” do not. What they demand is submission and obedience. A free and open society, where individual rights are respected and protected, cannot long survive if people cower in fear of losing their livelihoods for engaging in rational debate.

Most of us don’t know how or why music affects us the way it does, why we like the songs that we do. It’s the closest thing that we rational 21st-century people have to alchemy. But knowledge is power.

Racism is premised on the false and immoral idea that people’s minds are functions of their ancestry and, consequently, that a person’s accomplishments are less morally relevant than the color of his skin. But George Mason University law professor David E. Bernstein shows in Classified that racism contains still another layer of incoherence.

Despite some faults, Straight Line Crazy does an excellent job of bringing to modern audiences the harsh reality of how governments, even in wealthy, developed countries, can ride roughshod over people’s rights, rich and poor alike.

By giving us doorways into a wider world of art and ideas—and doing so without the backing of any major publishing houses—Luc Travers and Sandra Shaw have not only done us all a great service but have testified to the enormous value of art in all our lives.

Because Dominique is The Fountainhead's heroine and second most important character, we will not fully understand the book (arguably one of the greatest novels in literature) if we do not comprehend her character.