Anthem

<p><strong><em>Anthem</em> is Ayn Rand's stark dystopian novella of identity freedom and rebellion against enforced collectivism.</strong> In a future society where the word I has vanished and individuality is treated as a crime one man begins to recover the forbidden meaning of selfhood. Known only as Equality 7-2521 he lives under a system that demands obedience sameness and submission to the group but his discovery of knowledge love and independent thought leads him toward a dangerous act of defiance.</p><p>First published in 1938 <em>Anthem</em> is among Rand's most concise and accessible works presenting in compressed fictional form many of the themes that would later define her larger novels and philosophy: individual rights reason creativity personal identity and resistance to collectivist authority. At once a dystopian fable a philosophical novella and a story of awakening <em>Anthem</em> remains a significant text for readers of classic dystopian fiction political fiction twentieth-century literature libertarian thought and novels of ideas.</p>