The Age of American UnreasonA cultural history of the last forty years, The Age of American Unreason focuses on the convergence of social forces—usually treated as separate entities—that has created a perfect storm of anti-rationalism. These include the upsurge of religious fundamentalism, with more political power today than ever before; the failure of public education to create an informed citizenry; and the triumph of video over print culture. Sparing neither the right nor the left, Jacoby asserts that Americans today have embraced a universe of “junk thought” that makes almost no effort to separate fact from opinion. |
From inside the book
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Page xi
... Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, published in early 1963 on the hopeful cusp between the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late sixties. "One of the major virtues of liberal society in the past," Hofstadter wrote in ...
... Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, published in early 1963 on the hopeful cusp between the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late sixties. "One of the major virtues of liberal society in the past," Hofstadter wrote in ...
Page xi
... Anti - Intellectualism in American Life , published in early 1963 on the hopeful cusp between the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late sixties . " One of the major virtues of liberal society in the past , " Hofstadter ...
... Anti - Intellectualism in American Life , published in early 1963 on the hopeful cusp between the McCarthy era and the social convulsions of the late sixties . " One of the major virtues of liberal society in the past , " Hofstadter ...
Page xii
... anti- rationalism and anti - intellectualism are now synonymous . I cannot call myself a cultural conservative , because that term , hijacked by the religious right and propagated by the media , is customarily used to describe a person ...
... anti- rationalism and anti - intellectualism are now synonymous . I cannot call myself a cultural conservative , because that term , hijacked by the religious right and propagated by the media , is customarily used to describe a person ...
Page xv
... Anti- Intellectualism was published . In one important sense , the book is very much a product of the McCarthy era : Hofstadter was determined to examine the fierce postwar melding of anti - intellectualism and prose- cutorial anti ...
... Anti- Intellectualism was published . In one important sense , the book is very much a product of the McCarthy era : Hofstadter was determined to examine the fierce postwar melding of anti - intellectualism and prose- cutorial anti ...
Page xviii
... intellectual elitism . One important element of the resurgent anti - intellectualism in American life is the popular equation of intellectualism with a liberal- ism supposedly at odds with traditional American values . The entire ...
... intellectual elitism . One important element of the resurgent anti - intellectualism in American life is the popular equation of intellectualism with a liberal- ism supposedly at odds with traditional American values . The entire ...
Contents
3 | |
Intellect and Ignorance | 31 |
THREE Social Pseudoscience in the Morning | 61 |
FOUR Reds Pinkos Fellow Travelers | 82 |
Youth Culture and Celebrity Culture | 163 |
EIGHT The New OldTime Religion | 183 |
NINE Junk Thought | 210 |
Defining Dumbness Downward | 279 |
CONCLUSION Cultural Conservation | 307 |
Notes | 319 |
329 | |
335 | |
Other editions - View all
The Age of American Unreason: Dumbing Down and the Future of Democracy Susan Jacoby No preview available - 2009 |
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Popular passages
Page 9 - Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on. "I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least— at least I mean what I say — that's the same thing, you know." "Not the same thing a bit,
Page 6 - A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.