
The Age of American Unreason
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Narrado por:
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Cassandra Campbell
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De:
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Susan Jacoby
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 antirationalism.
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.
©2008 Susan Jacoby (P)2008 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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"Electric with fearless interpretation and fueled by passionate concern...brilliant, incendiary, and, one hopes, corrective." ( Booklist)
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Terrible Narrator
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Kind of a scatter shot writing technique
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A bit preachy, but accurate
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While the more fundamentalistic or conservative Americans might dislike the book because it occasionally has a good point about their particular world views, this is by far the least of the criticism that should be levied against this book.
In short, it teaches you nothing. If Susan Jacoby has some kind of scholarly field, it does not appear to coincide with the topics discussed in the book. I was disappointed to discover that Susan Jacoby doesn't make all that many arguments or bring up much evidence in favour of her positions.
Between taking well-deserved stabs against those who are proud of being ignorant and copying the Wikipedia pages of historical figures, Susan Jacoby regales us with purposeless rants against anything and everything she doesn't personally appreciate. No evidence needed.
If you are buying this book for any reason other than to improve upon the personal wealth of Susan Jacoby, I suggest you turn your attention to an author who actually has a point. Or listen to any of a variety of podcasts that cover similar subjects much more effectively, and usually in a more entertaining fashion.
This book is a whiny, unscholarly rant.
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1) A lot of facts about stuff that has happened in America. Interesting enough.
2) I have heard a defense of middle-brow morals from the late 50s and early 60s which was pretty compelling (although, it is not coincidental these are the morals with which Jacoby was raised).
3) That the Beatles aren't as good as Chopin (for which there is never a cogent argument besides that "it's obvious" or "Paul Simon doesn't think he's a poet").
4) And that TV is evil and has ruined our society (maybe to some extent, but is that really explaining anything? The question is why has it made us anti-intellectual vs. the Europeans).
I would have to say the anti-Beatles argument really sums up the weak points of this book. While its strengths are in its recitation of the intellectual history of America, its weaknesses are that it usually just hinges on, "well, come on, the Beatles are pop music, not as good as classical, come on!" It's not particularly moving as an argument, frankly.
That Jacoby can never separate her own personal tastes for the intellectual life (NPR, Russian Literature and wine and cheese) from her story about why America has been dumbed down to an almost comical level is a true shame. Because even though the topic could be a fascinating explanation of what's gone wrong with American minds, the book reads more like a personal indictment of things Jacoby doesn't like. Right-wing neocons? Yup she doesn't like 'em. Academic politics? She doesn't like 'em (and boy does she go on about it!). Pop culture? She doesn't like it.
In sum, it's very well read and very interesting, but never goes beneath a surface level of vitriol against the intellectual life to which Jacoby clearly aspires.
Interesting, but explanation by redescription
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Assault by Narrator
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Any additional comments?
This book is uneven in that it often hits the mark but is sometimes wildly off target. For example, I am puzzled by the author's impassioned denunciation of e-books as a symptom of intellectual decay.The reader was reasonably good but made at least a dozen slips of the tongue that should have been corrected in the production process. For example she said, "FARMERS of the Constitution" instead of "FRAMERS of the Constitution." This type of error is especially notable in an audiobook lamenting a loss of rigor in public discourse.
Uneven
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A Very Thoughtful Discourse Regarding American Anti Intellectualism
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Great book; poor reader
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Essential for the nation
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