How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Volume.Chapter.Section.Page). We used the 50th Anniversary Edition published by Signet Books in 2007.
Quote #7
Nathaniel Taggart had been a penniless adventurer who had come from somewhere in New England and built a railroad across a continent, in the days of the first steel rails. His railroad still stood; his battle to build it had dissolved into a legend. (1.3.2.14)
Nat Taggart's story is a quintessentially American one: that of the self-made man whose hard work takes him from rags to riches.
Quote #8
"You know, Dagny, Thanksgiving was a holiday established by productive people to celebrate the success of their work." (2.2.4.199)
Again, people with Objectivist values (Hank here) claim America as their own, here by connecting Thanksgiving with a strong work ethic.
Quote #9
The first story of the Minnesota disaster appeared in the newspapers three days later. It reported that the farmers who had waited in the streets of Lakewood for six days, with no place to store their wheat and no trains to carry it, had demolished the local courthouse, the mayor's home and the railroad station. Then the stories vanished abruptly and the newspapers kept silent, then began to print admonitions urging people not to believe unpatriotic rumors. (3.5.3.33)
We get a lot of rundowns of disasters throughout the country, which emphasizes the novel's epic scope. There are interesting details here about how the government is censoring the media and how people are starting to get violent in their protests.