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Unless you’re a gullible 16-year-old, a 42-year-old Tea Partier, or an 86-year-old former chairman of the Fed, you could probably use a primer on the mother of Objectivism, that Dostoevsky for dummies, Ayn Rand. After all, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are favorite reads of Paul Ryan, the D.C.-hot, D.C.-brilliant congressman who now shares Mitt Romney’s presidential ticket. And since his debut in the race most every story has gestured to his Randian roots, as if an adherence of the massive paperbacks often seen in freshmen dorm rooms could predict the whole course of this campaign, not to mention Ryan’s possible future as vice-president, then president, and all-around prime mover.

Maybe there’s something there. In 2009, GQ’s Andrew Corsello took a long look at the Russian philosopher, and found that, yes, in fact, there were devoted Randians to be found in glassy Wall Street offices, in high-up government perches, and in book-lined Washington think-tanks, all of whom had been working to remake and deregulate the American economy in their maker’s image. Which in turn led to, oh, the Great Recession. Here’s the only Rand rundown you’ll ever need: