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. |
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Page iv
... characteristics , American . I. Title . E169.283133 2008 973.91 - dc22 2007021562 www.pantheonbooks.com Printed in the United States of America First Edition 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 For Aaron Asher If a nation expects to be ignorant.
... characteristics , American . I. Title . E169.283133 2008 973.91 - dc22 2007021562 www.pantheonbooks.com Printed in the United States of America First Edition 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 For Aaron Asher If a nation expects to be ignorant.
Page vii
Susan Jacoby. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free , in a state of civilization , it expects what never was and never will be . -Thomas Jefferson , 1816 CONTENTS Introduction ONE The Way We Live Now : Just.
Susan Jacoby. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free , in a state of civilization , it expects what never was and never will be . -Thomas Jefferson , 1816 CONTENTS Introduction ONE The Way We Live Now : Just.
Page ix
... Nation THREE Social Pseudoscience in the Morning of America's Culture Wars FOUR Reds , Pinkos , Fellow Travelers xi 3 31 61 82 FIVE Middlebrow Culture from Noon to Twilight 103 SIX Blaming It on the Sixties 131 SEVEN Legacies : Youth ...
... Nation THREE Social Pseudoscience in the Morning of America's Culture Wars FOUR Reds , Pinkos , Fellow Travelers xi 3 31 61 82 FIVE Middlebrow Culture from Noon to Twilight 103 SIX Blaming It on the Sixties 131 SEVEN Legacies : Youth ...
Page xiii
... nation's heartland. My parents, grandparents, and most of their friends had voted for both Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but all I ever heard about Stevenson when I was growing up in a small town in Michigan was that he was too ...
... nation's heartland. My parents, grandparents, and most of their friends had voted for both Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, but all I ever heard about Stevenson when I was growing up in a small town in Michigan was that he was too ...
Page xii
... nation's heritage of eighteenth - century Enlightenment reason but with modern scien- tific knowledge , has propelled a surge of anti - intellectualism capable of inflicting vastly greater damage than its historical predecessors ...
... nation's heritage of eighteenth - century Enlightenment reason but with modern scien- tific knowledge , has propelled a surge of anti - intellectualism capable of inflicting vastly greater damage than its historical predecessors ...
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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academic adults American intellectual anti anti-intellectualism anti-rationalism autism baby Baby Einstein Baptist Beatles believe Bible biblical biblical literalism blogs boys brain Bush campuses Catholic chick lit Christian church civilization Communist conservative critical decades early elite Emerson evangelical evolution faith fifties freethought fundamentalism fundamentalist girls high school highbrow historians human idea ignorance important infotainment institutions intellec intelligent design John junk science junk thought Kennedy Kristol learning lectuals less literal lives magazines majority ment middlebrow middlebrow culture movement nation neoconservative never newspapers nineteenth century Nixon novels parents past percent political politicians popular president Protestant pseudoscience public schools religion religious Review right-wing scientific scientists secular social Darwinism social Darwinists society Soviet Union speech studies Susan Jacoby talking teaching television theory tion United University video games women writing York young
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.