''The God of the Machine'' is a book written by

Isabel Paterson Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...

and originally published in January 1943 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

G. P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and J ...

. At the time of its release, it was considered a cornerstone to the philosophy of

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

. Her biographer,

Stephen D. Cox Stephen D. Cox (born January 12, 1948) is the editor of ''Liberty'' magazine, an American online libertarian and classical liberal review. He is also an emeritus professor of literature at the University of California, San Diego and author of ...

, in 2004 described Paterson as the "earliest progenitor of

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

as we know it today". The book has been published several times: by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1943, by Muriel Hall in 1964, by Transaction Publishers in 1993, and by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

in 2017.

Background

Isabel Paterson wrote a regular column for the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'', where she first articulated many of her beliefs, which reached their final form in ''The God of the Machine''. She also foreshadowed those ideas, especially free trade, in her historical novels during the 1920s and 1930s. Paterson opposed most parts of the economic program known as the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

that US president

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

and the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

put into effect during the 1930s and she advocated less governmental involvement in social and fiscal matters. She also led a group of younger friends (many of whom were other employees of the ''Herald Tribune'') who shared her views. One member of that group was the young

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

. Paterson and Rand promoted each other's books, and they conducted an extensive exchange of letters, touching on religion and philosophy. That correspondence ended with a personal quarrel in 1948. Rand, an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, was critical of the attempts of Paterson, a deist, to link

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

with religion, things that Rand considered incompatible.

References

External links

''The God of the Machine''
– Mises Institute
Preview of book on Google bBooks
*

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...

The God of the Machine.
* Doherty, Brian
Review of Cox (2004)
''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

'', February 2005. * NeglectedBooks.com
Review and Excerpt from ''Never Ask the End''
* RationalReview.com
Essay-Review on Stephen Cox's The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America
by Jeff Riggenbach {{DEFAULTSORT:God of the Machine, The Ethical schools and movements Individualism 1943 non-fiction books Libertarian theory G. P. Putnam's Sons books