getAbstract

Advanced Search
Blog Blog | RSS Feeds RSS Feeds | Free Free Summaries
back  Back to Category Concepts & Trends

The Age of American Unreason

by Susan Jacoby

Pantheon Books, 2008

Category: Concepts & Trends

The Age of American Unreason

Get the summary

Subscribe today and dramatically increase your business knowledge in your own time and at an affordable rate. Our summaries will update your skills, jump-start your career and put you ahead of the pack. Learn how to thrive in every aspect of your professional life.

Subscribe
Subscribe

Sign up now and receive immediate full access to this summary.

Free Sample Summaries
Free sample summaries

Get summaries of two business bestsellers.

             

getAbstract rating

Overall (?)

rating 8 (8)

Importance

rating 7 (7)

Innovation

rating 9 (9)

Style

rating 8 (8)

Level of Expertise (?)

rating 4 (4)

User rating

(8.0)

In this summary you will learn

  • How American anti-intellectualism developed
  • What caused religious fundamentalism’s growth
  • What the cultural and political effects of anti-intellectualism are
  • What impact the boom in video and computers has had on reading

Why you should read The Age of American Unreason

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.

About the author

Susan Jacoby has written seven books, including Freethinkers and Wild Justice, a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She writes for several national publications.

inivs
inivs
inivs
 
Welcome | How It Works | Browse | Corporate Solutions | Subscribe

Accessibility | Publishers | About Us | Careers | Press Corner | Testimonials | Shvoong | Bloomberg | Book Award | Gift Subscriptions | Contact | Blog

Disclaimer | Privacy Statement | Affiliate Program | Operating Agreement | © 1999-2010, getAbstract