The Age of American Unreason

Not a Fun Read for the Close-Minded

Jacoby's book is a powerful look at the anti-intellectual current that seems to run through our society. As an individual who grew up in the deep South, right smack in the middle of the so-called Bible Belt, her sober look at the idol-worshiping of ignorance and anti-intellectualism, rang true to my own experience. There are many times during my youth when individuals actually boasted about their own ignorance. Jacoby's book for me was a self-affirming vision of my own struggles to climb beyond the close-mindedness of Christian fundamentalism to the freedom found in being able to realize that there are a number of things that I do not know. Jacoby's book is one of those I feel sure I will reread often to gather the bits of wisdom found in its pages.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Incisive jeremiad about America's intellectual decline

This is a stimulating tour of the history of ideas that shaped the United States' intellectual heritage and the social forces that continue to influence it. Susan Jacoby's expansive, provocative book is both personal and exceptionally refreshing. She shows the links among several, major intangible drivers of human behavior - religion, politics, ideology and fundamentalism - and uses them to explain why U.S. society came to devalue reason itself. Her culprits include rising fundamentalism and antiscientific thinking, and an onslaught of superficial stimuli. She doesn't think much of some political leaders, either, for that matter. getAbstract recommends this book to those who care about the U.S.'s intellectual life and the ideas that will shape its future.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

Susan Jacoby absolutely nails anti-intellectualism historically and its reappearance in epidemic form in recent years. She can talk about the Beatles as well as the history of the mind, so she embraces both popular culture and 'highbrow' culture, although she's most concerned with the disappearance of 'middlebrow' culture. This is a brilliant and troubling book, but written with excellent humor and perspective. The farthest thing from a rant.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Thought-provoking and depressing.

This is a very stimulating book about the rise of anti-intellectualism in America. Reading it will make you despair and with good reason. All discourse is now geared toward TV and visual media. Nuance and grey areas are studiously avoided. How are we supposed to say, choose a president when elections are nothing more than a charisma contest? Ms. Jacoby comes across as kind of a grump, but she justifies that grumpiness pretty well. By her lights, only someone with an educational background similar to hers should be reviewing her book. That leaves me out, but I still think it's well worth reading. Challenging.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Closed-minded followers need not apply

This is a well-written, engaging, and thought producing work which is in turns entertaining, humorous, and enraging. Although it is not as balanced as one might hope (there is a clear political bias at times), no thinking citizen can refute the conclusions drawn here.
The main thesis of this book is that Americans, moreso than nearly any other people, are increasingly failing to apply logic and reason to their everyday lives both on the individual and national levels. Ms. Jacoby names several culprits, including the religious right, the ultra-idealistic left, and the ubiquitous video culture, but in the end she lays the blame squarely at the feet of the individual. Each one of us is responsible for the degree to which we have allowed other people to do our thinking for us.
This well-researched work traces the history of independent thought in America from the nation's founding. Although it is remarkably thorough, the average reader will have no problem following the arguments regardless of experience with the subject matter. Any thinking person can enjoy this book.
In addition to the thorough treatment of the subject matter, this book is enjoyable for the style in which it was written. Ms. Jacoby has a remarkable vocabulary, and her use of language was at least as entertaining as the book itself. One should definitely keep the dictionary close-by while reading.
In summary, this is the type of book that thinking Americans should read and discuss. Unfortunately, too many of our fellow citizens will not.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Right on the money

Susan Jacoby in her "Age Of American Unreason" is the Thomas Paine of our time.

I couldn't agree with her more, and she voices the philosophy of any American who uses their brain instead of being a lemming.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Stimulating and Engaging

The Age of American Unreason is a stimulating and engaging over-view of reasoned thought and the influence of mass cultural movements (religious, political, technological) on the 'life of the mind' in the United States over the past 200 years. At times darkly amusing, Jacoby's book leaves the reader with a not entirely upbeat outlook on the future of the United States. This unabashedly 'middle-brow' reader has struggled, and continues to struggle, with family and friends, over many of the issues Jacoby raises in her fine analysis. Sadly, as she points out, her audience more than likely consists only of those sharing many of her views and those who do not will focus on over simplified insults rather than thoughtful discussion. However, even for those who disagree with Jacoby's conclusions, The Age of Unreason provides ample opportunity to stop and think.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Make this the next book you read

Nothing explains the mess America is in today better than The Age of American Unreason. I was hooked from the introduction. I have quoted from the text in my own exhortions for Americans to stop believing and start thinking. Susan Jacoby is an American Treasurer. Keith Taylor former president and chair of the San Diego Association for Rational Inquiry

Standard Left Dogma

When you get down to the core, there isn't any.

Same liberal dogma by those who helped create this mess of an economy.

Wish my professors were still alive to see what damage thier policies have caused and how they'd view more the same in the Age of Unreason.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Save Your Money

Belaboring toxic rhetoric.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Biased Liberal "Junk Thought"

This book is a put down of religiuos fundamentalism and conservatism and a promotion of left wing liberal dogma. The blurb on the back cover saying that Jacoby spares" niether the right nor the left" is false. How could anyone with any objectivity discuss "anti-rationalism" and "unreason" and "junk thought" over the "last forty years" and not discuss the irrationality of political correctness, except to say: "The right loves to pin the label of political correctness (meaning just about anything opposed to right wing values) on junk thought...". I guess what Jacoby is saying is that, in her opinion, being critical of political correctness is "junk thought", in which case political correctness is brilliant thought, (which is what irrational liberals like Jacoby believe). A true measure of Jacoby's biased agenda in writing this book is revealed by looking in the index, where "political correctness" has 3 page citations and "fundamentalist religion" and its subcatagories have 112 page citations. Don't waste your money on this book if you are a person looking for a balanced and objective analysis of the subject. matter.

0 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

Am easy read about tough concepts - can't handle it by just reading it once. It's a great book. I would love to participate in a seminar on the book. If I were still teaching I would definitely include it on my 'must read' list.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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