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. |
Contents
Just Us Folks | 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 |
Common terms and phrases
academic adults American intellectual anti anti-intellectualism anti-rationalism autism baby Baptist Beatles believe Bible biblical biblical literalism blogs boys brain Bush campus 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 important infotainment institutions intelligent design John junk science junk thought Kennedy Kristol learning lectuals less literal lives magazines McCarthy ment middlebrow middlebrow culture movement nation nature neoconservative never newspapers nineteenth century Nixon Norman Podhoretz Obama parents past percent political popular president professor Protestant pseudoscience public schools religion religious Review right-wing scientific scientists Second Great Awakening secular social Darwinism society Soviet Union speech studies Susan Jacoby talking teaching television theory tion United University video games women writing York young