false 15709356 656942 1822711 0375423745 9780375423741 200 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188838347m/1822711.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188838347s/1822711.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1822711.The_Age_of_American_Unreason 3.74 563
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 anti-rationalism. 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.]]> 259719 3.83 886 264 2008 3 2 false Tue Mar 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 18 12:09:03 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 18 22:26:11 -0700 2008 more...]]>