 Philosophy professor Stephen Hicks wrote in the "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" that Rand's "provocative title" was matched by "an equally provocative thesis about ethics".The idea of creating a collection of Rand's essays initially came from Bennett Cerf of Random House, who had published two of Rand's previous books, "Atlas Shrugged" and "For the New Intellectual".Rand proposed a collection of articles to be titled "The Fascist New Frontier", after a Ford Hall Forum speech she had given criticizing the views of President John F. Kennedy.