The God of the Machine is a book written by Isabel Paterson and published in 1943. At the time of its release, it was considered a cornerstone to the philosophy of individualism. Her biographer Stephen D. Cox (2004) believes Paterson is the "earliest progenitor of libertarianism as we know it today." Ayn Rand wrote in a letter in the 1940s that The God of the Machine "does for capitalism what Das Kapital does for the Reds and what the Bible did for Christianity".

[edit] Background

Isabel Paterson wrote a column for the Herald Tribune, where she first articulated many of the ideas that reached their final form in The God of the Machine. These ideas, especially free trade, were also foreshadowed in the historical novels she wrote in the 1920s and 1930s.

Paterson opposed most of the economic program, known as the New Deal, American president Franklin D. Roosevelt put into effect during the 1930s, and advocated less government involvement in social and fiscal issues. She also led a group of younger friends (many of whom were other Herald Tribune employees) who shared her views - one of which was the young Ayn Rand.

Paterson and Rand promoted each other's books and conducted an extensive correspondence, touching on religion and philosophy. This correspondence ended with a personal quarrel in 1948. Rand, an atheist, was critical of deist Paterson's attempts to link capitalism with religion (Rand considered the two to be incompatible).

[edit] Quotation

• "Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends... ...when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object." (The God of the Machine)

[edit] External links

• Preview of book on google books
• Cato Institute: The God of the Machine.
• Doherty, Brian, Review of Cox (2004), Reason, February 2005.
• NeglectedBooks.com: Review and Excerpt from Never Ask the End
• RationalReview.com: Essay-Review on Cox by Jeff Riggenbach