The Age of American Unreason
 |
|
Описание:
Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon--one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of 'junk thought.' 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 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.
Похожие книги
 | Encyclopedia of Public Health (A-G) Автор: Breslow L. (ed.) Год: 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of Public Health (D-K) Автор: Breslow L. (ed.) Год: 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of Public Health (L-R) Автор: Breslow L. (ed.) Год: 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of Public Health (S-Z) Автор: Breslow L. (ed.) Год: 2002 |
 | The Media and The Public Автор: Stephen Coleman Год: 2010 |
 | PUBLIC OPINION, SECURITY THREATS, AND FOREIGN POLICY FORMATION Автор: William Davis Год: 2010 |