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Jan 01, 2009

Trevor rated it:

Once upon a time, and a very good time it was indeed, there was an America that proudly stood as the intellectual beacon of the world, the light on the hill which shone and illuminated even down into those darkest of places the light of reason and hope. Because reason and hope are sisters and hand-in-hand they can transform the world.

Then one day one of these sisters got lost in the woods, lost in the dark and impenetrable woods of ignorance and stupidity and aggressive ignorance. More...

9 comments like (17 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2010

Skylar rated it:

Because I am a product of the Age of American Unreason, I’m going to begin reviewing this book before I’ve finished reading it. Besides, I don’t have time to read the entire book. I have to watch all the re-runs I’ve DVRed of America’s Biggest Loser and Bachelor, and then I need to fantasize about the end times when everyone who disagrees with me gets theirs, and I’ve also got to spend a few minutes irrationally doubting whether macroevolutionary theory is a fully sufficient explanation for the More...

7 comments like (14 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Kristine rated it:

If you agree with everything Jacoby says, you're not paying enough attention. She's out to diagnose all the reasons why Americans are falling behind the rest of the world intellectually. I think she's right about a lot of what she says, but she blames quite a bit on conservatives and on religion that I don't agree can be laid on those particular doorsteps. At the same time, it's fascinating to read her take on the 60's--particularly given that my in-laws were definitely part of the counter-co More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2008

Lunnon rated it:

This book has been hyped with a lot of articles in newspapers, esp. a big one in the New York Times and sounded interesting. I found that the sections of the book where she laid out the historical foundations of American anti-intellectualism were not as interesting as the sections towards the end where she starts cataloging all the junk science, junk thought, obsession with celebrities,technological distractions, and 'us folks' relativism that have taken over society today. Some of it approaches More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Michael rated it:

There's some interesting material in this book, mostly historical, but overall it's deeply flawed. Jacoby likes to lump things together with no real justification. All TV, movies, internet content, and music which happens to be on an iPod become the scourge that is "infotainment", which is to be blamed for most, if not all, of society's problems. There's nothing here to support this idea other than the author's repeated pejorative use of the dubious term. To her, books are active enter More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2008

Heather rated it:

If goodreads had any intention of fixing their broken code so I could rate this book, I would give it the "I HATED IT" rating.

Jacoby presents her book in a chronological order. So, I thought I really liked the book up until she started talking about present day stuff. Then her bias became so unbelievably clear to me that I no longer trust any of the things she said about the past and I realize I only accepted her view because I didn't really know much about the things she More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2008

Sally rated it:

Ultimately, this book did its job, or a job, because I feel strongly enough about it to write a review. Jacoby's broad intention is, I think, heartfelt and needed. And many of her subarguments are coherent and compelling. It is her own emphasis on high intellectual standards that invites criticism of otherwise minor points. She demands rigor in American thought, so I shall apply rigor to my evaluation of her book.
Her willingness to express not just amusement but alarm at the inability of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

Scot rated it:

This book is thoroughly researched, logically organized, eloquently written, and incredibly significant for the real problem it points out: the severe dumbing down of America that has occurred in the past forty years. With wit and wisdom, the author puts this troubling phenomenon in the larger historical context of the history of this country, and traces the strong and virulent forces that coalesced to set us on the path toward the bleak future sardonically portrayed in the 2006 film Idiocracy More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2008

David rated it:

Jacoby's book begins as a discussion of the historical context of American anti-intellectualism, and ends as a jeremiad. The transition from a detached analysis to a personal cry occurs around Chapter 6, "Blaming it on the Sixties," in which Jacoby begins weaving personal anecdotes into the main thread of the text. The subsequent chapters remain grounded in studies and in reporting, but with an increasingly exasperated tone as Jacoby writes of youth and celebrity culture, of the resu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2009

Daniel rated it:

This took a while to get through. Not only does each of Jacoby's sentences sound like it deserves its own dissertation, but a lot of ground is covered in its 300+ pages. As a seasoned journalist, Jacoby tackles the prevailing anti-intellectual sentiment that has infiltrated every aspect of daily life, from the media, to pop-culture to civic and political figures.

Jacoby devotes a lot of time to the history of this sentiment, dating back to the pre-Civil War ideological split in the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 30, 2008

Rodhilton rated it:

For a book that laments the decline of reason in American culture, this book sure does manage to avoid it's use when making arguments.

Essentially the book's real premise is this: Americans are increasingly anti-rational, largely due to the fact that they are reading fewer books. Considering this is coming from a book author, it's hard not to face this argument with some skepticism. Indeed, Jacoby never really provides much in the way of evidence, assuming her claims to be self-evid More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2008

Jesse rated it:

Irritating, and not even that good a screed. Jacoby's history off why people believe dumb things, or don't believe in reason, is pretty solid, but after the 60s chapter, which has a nice balance, it starts to feel more and more like a scattershot attempt to rewrite The Closing of the American Mind, except this time by someone who has actually stepped outside the classroom in the last 30 years.

It's not entirely successful. Parts of it feel like journalistic pieces plopped in where th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 26, 2008

Jane rated it:

I suspected before I began this book that I would agree with many of the author's opinions, and in fact, I did. While one needs to keep in mind that Jacoby, like every other person, is biased by her own experiences/education/upbringing, she nevertheless points out many things that I, too, believe to be true about American society today--that much of it is "dumbed down," that too high a percent of our population is preoccupied by cable TV, reality shows, video games, iPods, etc., that More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Ken rated it:

It wasn't that this was a bad book--it was the expected rant on the dilapidation of intellectualism in the US, particularly as illustrated in the political arena and enabled by our 24/7, ADD culture--it's just that it seemed a bit pointless to me. One of my biggest concerns (and I share many with the author) is that the more polarized our society becomes, the more that having a different view somehow automatically puts that view equal footing with all others, and the more that "because tha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

lisa_emily rated it:

Jacoby was inspired, or rather compelled to write this book after hearing a conversation on 9/11/2001- according to The New York Times, it went something like this: “This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said. The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied. At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/... More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 31, 2008

Ben rated it:

I heard of Susan Jacoby's book (and Jacoby herself, I might add) through her interview on The Colbert Report. The topic struck a chord with me. I suppose I could describe myself as an intellectual even though I am only a teenager/young adult--I read for pleasure, as my membership on this site would indicate, and I regularly engage in thought and discourse about matters that may be labelled intellectual. As a result, a book about anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism in America piqued my int More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2008

Griffin rated it:

Susan Jacoby's book can be divided into two parts. First Ms. Jacoby examines the historical roots of America's penchant for resisting intellectuals and intellectualism. Second, Ms. Jacoby fumes about the changes in our culture since the '60s.

The first portion of the book is an excellent investigation and discussion of 75% of 'how we got to where we are now.' The second part of Ms. Jacoby's book is essentially 'The '60s and the other 25% of how we got to where we are now' and is a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2008

Colin rated it:

An occasionally brilliant account of growing American anti-intellectualism. Some parts are a bit dry (I found chapter 4 "Reds, Pinkos, Fellow Travelers" and 5 "Middlebrow Culture From Noon to Twilight" excessively so), but the more brilliant bits more than make up for them. Chapter 11, "Public Life: Defining Dumbness Downward" is a must-read, especially as we proceed towards this year's (2008) elections that will shape public policy for years to come. I think this o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 20, 2008

Tiffoknee the 3rd rated it:

I can agree that this book did not quite live up to the hype which preceded it. However, I did find quite a bit of substance to Jacoby's arguments. What's more, I was sincerely provoked by her commentary on the current state of intellectual inquiry in the United States insofar as her book serves as a worthwhile starting point for further investigation. This is not a definitive polemic. There were times when the tone was a bit too inconsistent for my tastes, but I did not buy this book thinki More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 22, 2008

Brian rated it:

I'm betting Jacoby self-identifies as an intellectual.

She bashes chick lit. She bashes Stephen King. She has no idea why college students wouldn't want to hang with the "real writer" forced to crash at their dormitory on her whirlwind book tour. Probably because the "real writer" looked desperate to dispense intellectualisms into young ears.

The way it works is if you've read a book by Stephen King, John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Sophie Kinsella, Pa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2008

Laura rated it:

I ended up somewhat disappointed with this book. I got on the waiting list for it at my local library after seeing the author speak on TV one day, and had to wait a couple months for my name to roll up to the top of the library hold list. I jumped right into the book when I finally got my turn, with some excitement. The first part of the book, sort of a history of anti-intellectualism in the U.S., is interesting. Later on, though, the book starts to feel more complaining and shrill, tending More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 20, 2008

Annea rated it:

It's a little depressing to read this book - Jacoby points out how deep anti-intellectualism runs in the U.S., and the problems we face with a population so poorly educated and under-skilled in understanding science and mathematics. She discusses how easily people are led by junk science (true junk science, not the actual science labeled junk by 'conservatives' trying to debunk global warming etc.). How Americans unquestioningly accept shallow information from the media - and entertainment is m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2008

Eugenia marked it as to-read

I had to include this exchange from a recent NY Times article on the book on why the author chose to write the book:

“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.

The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”

“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.

At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/...

More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Conrad added it

I did find some of Ms. Jacoby's perspectives interesting and thought provoking.

I only have two real complaints.

First, I think she errs when she blames technology rather then those who use it. Is TV bad for us? Well, sure if you sit around watching hours and hours of Jersey Shore, but I feel that the educational content available is far from damaging, it is a distinction that Ms. Jacoby refuses to to make in this book. She argues instead that the damage done to ones attention span far outweighs More...

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Jan 11, 2011

Tom X. rated it:

I should have been the perfect audience for Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason: I'm an atheist, I consider pop culture to be largely crap, and I regularly roll my eyes at the utter nonsense coming from people on a variety of topics (from religion to junk science). Unreason unfortunately demonstrates that its author could learn a few things about reasoned arguments. Jacoby is particularly fond of straw men, if the frequency with which she sets them up means anything. She would do well to st More...

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Mar 05, 2009

Kristen rated it:

Published well before November in 2008, this book now seems almost - but not quite - too alarmist. Jacoby (author of several other books that I now must look up) dissects the anti-intellectual strain in U.S. history and excoriates the rise to unwarranted prominence of both junk science and "junk thought" - which are characterized by a disdain for logic and evidence, and the elevation of feeling (or sincerity, as Harry Frankfurt might have it) as a basis for opinions and decisions on e More...

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Feb 28, 2009

Erik rated it:

Maybe I am too much the glass-half-full kind of person – which reflects the perennial hope-springs-eternal tendency of many public educators -- or even the fact that many a historical personage has decried the lamentable illiteracy of the hoi polloi since ancient times (some Greek whose name eludes me at the moment said as much once upon a time). Whatever the case, my first thought is that Jacoby’s treatise raising the red warning flags of ever-widening cultural and scientific illiteracy may jus More...

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Feb 07, 2009

Dan rated it:

Dismayed by the rapid decrease of reading, writing and intelligent discourse in America, Susan Jacoby has crafted an engaging, at times humorous, often depressing and always thought provoking book on the present, past and future of intellectualism in America.

I came into this book thinking that the author would be "preaching to the choir" and was surprised to come away looking hard at my own life for ways to change. Although I am an avid reader and consider myself, probably More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 06, 2011

Alex rated it:

3.5 stars, really. I believe I heard about this book by reading an article on secular authors somewhere, and it sounded like something I’d be interested in, so I added it to my to-read list. A book about why America was seemingly becoming so, for lack of a better word, dumb? Sign me up! It was a slow read for me, but for the most part a really interesting history of how anti-intellectualist movements have permeated the country since America’s inception. I was particularly intrigued by the chapte More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Paul rated it:

Pop nonfiction offerings can be hit-or-miss, especially when read in the years following their release. Theses that might connect to current events on a daily basis when a book goes to press can seem quite dated when removed from that immediate context. The Age of American Unreason does suffer a bit--though not too much--when read three years after the waning days of the Bush 43 administration. While the mast of Jacoby's points are still spot-on, they don't quite have the same urgent resonanc More...

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