The Closing of the American Mind [NOOK Book]

( 13 )

Overview

The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition.A cultural phenomenon with more than 750,000 copies in print, The Closing of the American Mind is as penetrating a criticism of our culture today as it was twenty-five years ago. In this acclaimed number one national bestseller, Allan Bloom, one of our country’s ...

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The Closing of the American Mind

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Overview

The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition.A cultural phenomenon with more than 750,000 copies in print, The Closing of the American Mind is as penetrating a criticism of our culture today as it was twenty-five years ago. In this acclaimed number one national bestseller, Allan Bloom, one of our country’s most distinguished political philosophers, argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are really an intellectual crisis—a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites. In his new afterword, author Andrew Ferguson recounts why the book caused such a furor at publication and why its argument continues to provoke and endure.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

In 1987, Allan Bloom was best known, if he was known at all, for his translations of Plato and Rousseau. That background hardly seemed a propitious setting for a controversy-raising bestseller, but his 1987 The Closing of the American Mind would become one of the most discussed books of the decade. Bloom's critique of our educational system became the starting points of thousands of seminar discussions and numerous periodical articles. This 15th anniversary edition introduces this battleground classic to a new generation. Now in trade paperback and NOOK Book.

— Denise Duarte

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Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940024462744
  • Format: eBook
  • Edition description: Digitized from 1987 volume
  • File size: 911 KB

Meet the Author

Allan Bloom was professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College and co-director of the John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy at the University of Chicago. He taught at Yale, University of Paris, University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, and Cornell, where he was the recipient of the Clark Teaching Award in 1967. He died in 1992.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Saul Bellow

Preface

Introduction: Our Virtue

PART ONE. STUDENTS

The Clean Slate

Boob

Music

Relationships

Self-Centeredness

Equality

Race

Sex

Separateness

Divorce

Love

Eros

PART TWO. NIHILISM, AMERICAN STYLE

The German Connection

Two Revolutions and Two States of Nature

The Serf

Creativity

Culture

Values

The Nietzscheanization of the Left or Vice Versa

Our Ignorance

PART THREE. THE UNIVERSITY

From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede

Tocqueville on Democratic Intellectual Life

The Relation Between Thought and Civil Society

The Philosophic Experience

The Enlightenment Transformation

Swift's Doubts

Rousseau's Radicalization and the German University

The Sixties

The Student and the University

Liberal Education

The Decomposition of the University

The Disciplines

Conclusion

Index

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 13 )
Rating Distribution

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Sort by: Showing all of 13 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted June 18, 2003

    Difficult book to get through

    I would have to disagree with some of the previous reviewers. I found the book quite difficult to understand. You need a degree in philosophy, or you need to be a well-read autodidact to figure out what Bloom is writing about sometimes. His convoluted style doesn't help, either. I lost track of how many times I had to re-read sentences half a page long (or so it seemed) for meaning. Bloom does make interesting reading every so often though, and he is right about a narrowing of the mind in American higher education. He is wrong to blame this primarily on social-science liberals. Economics plays its part - an arts degree is worth less and less - and it is hardly surprising that many of the most intelligent students choose business degrees now. One part of the book that is disappointing is that which deals with music. Bloom's musical development seems to have ended with jazz and his misconceptions about anything post 1960 led me to wonder about his wisdom in other areas. Nevertheless, the book is still worth a read, but be prepared for a challenging experience.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 11, 2000

    Hardly a 'trashball'

    This is a book that can change a person's life. It's the type of book where one realizes that the point of reading is not to read the opinions one already has and to pat oneself on the back and parade with all manners of celebration, but to challenge them, as Socrates tries to show Meno. I have no idea what type of math problem '52 year old mathematician' was doing when he wrote his review labeling the book (with a lot of sweeping generalizations backed by his major thesis 'the book is to hard for me') as a 'trashball,' but it must have been of the third grader variety. This book is like fresh air, it will make you feel good and it will enliven your mind. I agree that Socrates should be brought back into schools, but not at the third grade level as the '52 year old mathematician' has had him. Everyone should know Greek. No one can appreciate the craftsmanship of Pato ('A philosopher who practices music' as Nietzsche called himself) or the absolute irony of Socrates without knowing the Greek. Why is it that people read the Apology, and leave Plato thereafter? Who has even read the Laws, Sophist, etc? How many people really know Plato's philosophy? How can we let ourselves not completely grasp something? This book of Bloom's is nothing compared to the Republic, but it is still better than most anything one can read to develop the soul. It is criticized vaguely by relativists as being 'elitist,' 'conservative,' surely 'sexist' even 'rascist.' These people equate standards and truth with opinions and fleeting desires. - Anyone who attempts to find a right way to live must be one of those damn crazy republicans. - (that is of course a vulgar charicature drawn as simple as can be, but as far as their argument goes, or lack thereof, I don't think if fails the mark to refute it) Read the Harold Bloom interview on bn.com - he defends himself nicely in his choice of Faulkner over Morrison.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 17, 2003

    Cultural Literacy a Good Thing?

    In reading this text it becomes cleal that Bloom is an advocate of keeping a closed canon within this country. He argues for the great books and against everything else, no good education ever came solely from the great books. Bloom seems in his undertones to advocate something far worse that keeping a closed canon, he advocates closedmindedness, a sin above all others. I reccoment that anyone who reads this also read 'The Liberal Arts, The Campus, and the Biosphere: An Alternative to Bloom's Vision of Education' by David W. Orr, Published in the Harvard Educational Review 60 (2): 205-216. Blooms sentiment is truely the exact opposite of what should be happening in this country.

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 28, 2003

    A marvellous book

    A remarkable book. Written from the perspective of the late 1980's, Bloom's analysis of the debasement of higher education and American culture in general is even more valid today. The most remarkable chapter is 'The German Connection', which vividly shows how value relativism, so beloved by modern liberals, was first described by Nietzsche, not as a cause for celebration, but as the malady that afflicts us and which has to be overcome. I somehow doubt that the left will enjoy this book - it strikes too close to home - but for the rest of us it is something worth returning to over and over for its insights and wisdom.

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    Posted May 24, 2011

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    Posted April 30, 2011

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    Posted May 28, 2010

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    Posted April 30, 2010

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    Posted May 22, 2011

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    Posted February 15, 2013

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