We Are Like The Proverbial Frogs....

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	• The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby Pantheon, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 98 reviews view larger image
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Dealing with Dumbing Down

Susan Jacoby's, THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON, is a much needed book. In an age when the very word "intellectual" is a dirty word, someone needs to come to the defense of thinkers. Jacoby speaks out against what she terms "popular anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism." She finds many roots for our current situation: the rise of religious fundamentalism; the equating of intellectualism with liberalism; she says that Americans have become not illiterate but a-literate, and blames much of this on "the greater accessibility of information through computers and the Internet."

She traces the history of thought and anti-thought from the pre-revolutionary freethinkers, through the era of the sixties to our present day, covering much of the same ground as in her previous book, FREETHINKERS, A HISTORY OF AMERICAN SECULARISM. As a matter of opinion, I'd recommend reading FREETHINKERS first to prepare for the greater depth of her current book.

I loved reading this book and on nearly every page I found something to which I could say amen. Jacoby writes with style and humor, even though at times she sounds a bit curmudgeonly.

Some might be disppointed that most of the material is devoted to history and analysis, while very little is devoted to solutions. I believe that this is the book's strength. There are no quick cures. We must first face the problem before we can work out the solutions.

One caveat: Jacoby is clearly and unapologetically an atheist. She has little use for "supernaturalist fundamentalism." While she concedes that there may be intellectuals in this camp, they are in her view, by definition irrational. As an evangelical Christian, I'd have to disagree, though at the same time I'd recommend this book to my thinking evangelical friends.

Anyone who is concerned about the dumbing down of American life and thought should read Jacoby!

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Age of Unreason

I highly recommend this book. Should be a must read for all students and teachers. History and English should be required. We are indeed becoming a dumber nation.

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beyond the sound-bite culture

We have to start somewhere and it might as well be by turning off the TV and forcing reading time on Americans. The depth and breadth of ignorance in America has brought us to a dangerous precipice and Jacoby's account of how we got here is a good look in the mirror. Required reading for all Americans who have an attention span that is more than a sound-bite.

We Are Like The Proverbial Frogs....

In a pan of water....The heat is slowly being turned up and very few of us are jumping out~!

Author Of Black Women Deserve Better

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Pedantic view of American Culture

While the author has many good points to make, she uses a lot of $2.00 words to make them. There is too much political witchhunting and not enough plainspeak devoted to the middleclass reader. Aside from this Ms. Jacoby has a great deal to teach. I agree that the political leaders in this country have sunk to a new low in their ability to use the English language.

reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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