9. Topographies of Liberal Thought: Rand and Arendt and Race

The penultimate chapter of this book compares arguments on de-segregation in American schools forwarded by Ayn Rand and Hannah Arendt, especially as they relate to the 1957 ‘Little Rock incident’. Both authors came out against moves to promote integration in classrooms, and through contrasting what might seem their aligned positions, the chapter draws out the wider stakes involved a comparative reading of their work. Central to this project, and central also to recent ‘alt-right’ contributions to debates on ‘liberalism’, are questions of topography. What are the demarcations that must be called upon when separating a celebrated theorist such as Arendt from a seemingly peripheral and problematic thinker such as Rand? And how might the difficulties involved in corralling these two impact on the kind of physical and social separations that are evoked and evaded within their racist discourse, and its subsequent critical response?