The Age of American Unreason
by Jacoby, Susan
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1400096383
- ISBN 13
- 9781400096381
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
2 Copies Available from This Seller
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon--one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Disdain for logic and evidence defines a pervasive malaise fostered by the mass media, triumphalist religious fundamentalism, mediocre public education, a dearth of fair-minded public intellectuals on the right and the left, and, above all, a lazy and credulous public.Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the American addiction to infotainment--from television to the Web--and cites this toxic dependency as the major element distinguishing our current age of unreason from earlier outbreaks of American anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism. With reading on the decline and scientific and historical illiteracy on the rise, an increasingly ignorant public square is dominated by debased media-driven language and received opinion.At this critical political juncture, nothing could be more important than recognizing the "overarching crisis of memory and knowledge" described in this impassioned, tough-minded book, which challenges Americans to face the painful truth about what the flights from reason has cost us as individuals and as a nation.From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- ThriftBooks (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- G1400096383I4N00
- Title
- The Age of American Unreason
- Author
- Jacoby, Susan
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 2
- ISBN 10
- 1400096383
- ISBN 13
- 9781400096381
- Publisher
- Vintage
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2009
Terms of Sale
ThriftBooks
About the Seller
ThriftBooks
About ThriftBooks
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...