In her powerful novel Anthem, Ayn Rand crafts a chilling dystopian narrative where the concept of “self” has been eradicated, and individuals have been reduced to mere cogs in a vast collective machine. Drawing from her own harrowing experiences as a refugee from the communist regime of 1920s Russia, alongside the ominous rise of fascism and National Socialism in Europe, Rand presents a poignant warning against the perils of losing personal identity in an increasingly homogenized world. Summary by Greg Giordano.