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From the Publisher: A 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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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Popular culture, Social aspects of Mass media, Civilization, Social conditions, Reason, American National characteristics, Mass media, Social values, Social psychology, Social aspects of Reason, Current Events, History, Nonfiction, Irrationalismus, Sociale waarden, Populaire cultuur, Hoger onderwijs, Wetenschap, Nationalcharakter, Soziale Situation, Irrationalisme, Social aspects, Cultuur, Large type books, New York Times reviewed, United states, civilization, 1945-, United states, social conditions, 1945-, Mass media, social aspects, Popular culture, united states, National characteristics, americanPlaces
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1945-Showing 8 featured editions. View all 8 editions?
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The age of American unreason: in a culture of lies
2018
in English
- Second Vintage Books edition, new updated edition.
0525436529 9780525436522
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The age of American unreason
2009, Vintage Books
in English
- 1st Vintage Books ed.
1400096383 9781400096381
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The Age of American Unreason: Library Edition
Aug 01, 2008, Tantor Media Inc
preloaded digital audio player
1605148598 9781605148595
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8
The Age of American Unreason
2008, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Electronic resource
in English
0307377121 9780307377128
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Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Work Description
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.
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