Here's a site that might help out a bit,
Pizza .... it has some good points.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/atlasshrugged/facts.html
I'm glad I didn't look at that link until I finished the book - it gives too much away. I suspected as much, and have not read any reviews for that very reason.
From your link:
Rand’s underlying attitude toward modern society is bitterly ironic and satirical.
That may be true, (I'm not convinced it is) but "ironic and satirical" does not at ALL describe
Atlas Shrugged.
Atlas Shrugged is Ann's exaggerated story of what she warns can happen to our world if we loose sight of the importance of what us older persons call our "work ethic". In the book, the drive to abandon the work ethic is collectivism. (And let us not get lost in terms here - by "collectivism" I mean
the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it.)
In the book, nations all over the world are nationalizing private property and businesses. But in the USA, this is not the case - there is no indication in the book that nationalizing of private property was ever the idea. Instead, the wrong-headed economic and political leaders of the day were only driven by the 'ideal' of "making things fair for all". Their plan was for a planned economy where all commerce was privately owned, but regulated not ONLY by government, but by co-operative boards or commissions made up of members of private industry. These boards would participate in the operations of the planned economy.
Even without the OBVIOUS corruption that would follow from such a structure, failure of the various industries would be inevitable. The book does a very good job of detailing the mess that such a system would become.
But there are even more profound lessons taught by this book. In rather subtle ways,
Atlas Shrugged makes the case for WHY some of us invent, build and develop products or services that you see all around you. We all assume that people like Bill Gates develop companies like Microsoft to become rich. Money motivates ALL of us. But there is much more to those who build success on the foundation of a product or service they develop themselves. In the over 1,000 pages of this book, we spend a lot of time looking at the minds of those who devote their lives to endeavors like those of Ford, Edison or Taggert.
But we learn something else: We learn just how much OTHERS profit and benefit from the efforts of those who build, invent and develop products or services. Think about the unskilled laborer. The unskilled laborer, 300 years ago, could only work enough to feed himself and provide some shelter from the elements. Today, the unskilled can go to work at most any menial job and earn (not very much) money which can, of course, buy food and shelter. But it can do a LOT more, it can buy all of the wonderful gadgets made possible by greater minds and much greater efforts. In his great speech (which is way too long), John Galt explains:
"When you work in a modern factory, you are paid, not only for your labor, but for all the productive genius which has made that factory possible...." The "genius" he means includes the investors who made the plant possible, the engineers who invented the equipment of the plant, the inventors who made the generation and use of electric power possible, the person who developed the product you are making, etc.
The over riding lesson is that is it WRONG HEADED if you do not appreciate the impact these other people have made - and the opportuniteis they make possible for all.
Of course, one other major topic is John Galt's credo:
"I swear, by my life and my love for it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Well, I never have done either, and never will.
back to topic... 
