The Age of American Unreason (Record no. 11738)
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000 -LEADER | |
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fixed length control field | 01805nam a2200181 4500 |
010 ## - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER | |
LC control number | 2007021562 |
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER | |
International Standard Book Number | 9780375423741 |
024 ## - OTHER STANDARD IDENTIFIER | |
Standard number or code | 140101081 |
050 ## - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CALL NUMBER | |
Classification number | E169.Z83 |
082 ## - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER | |
Classification number | 973.91 |
100 1# - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME | |
Personal name | Susan Jacoby |
245 1# - TITLE STATEMENT | |
Title | The Age of American Unreason |
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC. | |
Name of publisher, distributor, etc. | Pantheon |
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION | |
Extent | 384 pages |
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC. | |
Summary, etc. | 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. |
650 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM | |
Topical term or geographic name entry element | History - U.S. |
Withdrawn status | Lost status | Damaged status | Not for loan | Home library | Current library | Date acquired | Total checkouts | Full call number | Barcode | Date last seen | Copy number | Price effective from | Koha item type |
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Lake Chapala Society | Lake Chapala Society | 07/17/2024 | 973.91 JACO | 65238 | 07/17/2024 | 1 | 07/17/2024 | Book |