1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910788102203321

Titolo

The state of the American mind : 16 leading critics on the new anti-intellectualism / / edited by Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow

Pubbl/distr/stampa

West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania : , : Templeton Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

1-59947-509-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (280 p.)

Disciplina

305.5520973

Soggetti

Intellectuals - United States

Mass media and culture - United States

United States Intellectual life 21st century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Subtitle from cover.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Foreword-America: Are We Losing Our Mind?; Introduction-The Knowledge Requirement: What Every American Needs to Know; Part One-States of Mind: Indicators of Intellectual and Cognitive Decline; 1. The Troubling Trend of Cultural IQ ; 2. Biblical Literacy Matters ; 3. Why Johnny and Joanie Can't Write, Revisited ; 4. College Graduates: Satisfied, but Adrift ; 5. Anatomy of an Epidemic ; Part Two-Personal and Cognitive Habits/Interests; 6. A Wired Nation Tunes Out the News ; 7. Catching Our Eye: The Alluring Fallacy of Knowing at a Glance

8. The Rise of the Self and the Decline of Intellectual and Civic Interest 9. Has Internet-Fueled Conspiracy-Mongering Crested? ; Part Three-National Consequences; 10. Dependency in America: American Exceptionalism and the Entitlement State ; 11. Political Ignorance in America ; 12. In Defense of Difficulty: How the Decline of the Ideal of Seriousness Has Dulled Democracy in the Name of a Phony Populism ; 13. We Live in the Age of Feelings ; 14. How Colleges Create the "Expectation of Confirmation" ; 15. The New Antinomian Attitude ; Afterword; Contributors; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In 1987, Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind was published; a wildly popular book that drew attention to the shift in



American culture away from the tenants that made America-and Americans-unique. Bloom focused on a breakdown in the American curriculum, but many sensed that the issue affected more than education. The very essence of what it meant to be an American was disappearing. That was over twenty years ago. Since then, the United States has experienced unprecedented wealth, more youth enrolling in higher education than ever before, and technology advancements far beyond what m