The Age of American Unreason

387 Pages·2008·5.44 MB·English

by  Susan Jacoby

S U S AN
I A C O BY
author of FREETHINKERS
The AGE
AM E RIC AN
of
UNREASON
$26.oo U.S.A.
$30.00 Can.
COMBINING HISTORICAL analysis with contem­
porary 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 fos­
tered 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 credu­
lous public.
Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the
American addiction to infotainment—from televi­
sion to the Web—and cites this toxic dependency
as the major element distinguishing our current
age of unreason from earlier outbreaks of Ameri­
can anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism. With
reading on the decline and scientific and historical
illiteracy on the rise, an increasingly ignorant pub­
lic square is dominated by debased media-driven
language and received opinion.
At this critical political juncture, nothing could
be more important than recognizing the "overarch­
ing crisis of memory and knowledge" described in
this impassioned, tough-minded book, which chal­
lenges Americans to face the painful truth about
what the flight from reason has cost us as individ­
uals and as a nation.
SUSAN JACOBY is the author of seven previous
books, most recently Freethinkers: A History of
American Secularism, which was named a Nota­
ble Book of 2004 by The Washington Post Book
World and The Times Literary Supplement. She
lives in New Y^rk City.
Author photograph © Chris Ramirez
Jacket design by Barbara de Wilde
PANTHEON BOOKS, NEW YORK
www.pantheonbooks.com
2/2008
"The Age of American Unreason picks up where Richard Hofstadter left off. With analytic
verve and deep historical knowledge, Susan Jacoby documents the dumbing down of
our culture like a maestro. Make no mistake about it, this is an important book."
— DOUGLAS BRINKLEY,
presidential historian and author of The Great Deluge
"This is one of the most eye-opening books I've read in a long time. Jacoby charts the
intellectual and cultural currents that have characterized the United States since its
founding and explains just how and why Americans have recently become so, well,
dumb. Anyone who cares about the future of our country will want to read it."
— MARCIA ANGELL,
editor in chief emerita, New England Journal of Medicine
"Jacoby has written a brilliant, sad story of the anti-intellectualism and lack of reason­
able thought that has put this country in one of the sorriest states in its history."
— HELEN THOMAS,
author of Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and
How It Has Failed the Public
"Jacob/s fearless jeremiad, at once passionate, witty, and solidly grounded in facts, arrives
at a propitious moment, when many Americans are perceiving that ignorance con­
joined to arrogance can be deadly This book deserves to be widely read, and especially
by concerned parents. As Jacoby insists, it is only within families that some immunity
to mind-numbing 'infotainment' can now be acquired. First, however, there must be a
will to resist—and if this stirring book can't rally it, nothing can."
— FREDERICK CREWS,
author of Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays
"To a country of underachievers and proud of it, this book delivers a magnificent, occa­
sionally hilarious kick in the pants. Snap out of it, Jacoby says: Getting it right matters.
Tough talk and wicked wit in the tradition of Richard Hofstadter'sAnti-Intellectualism
in American Life and Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death."
—JACK MILES,
author of God: A Biography

ALSO BY SUSAN JACOBY
Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past
WildJustice: The Evolution of Revenge
The Possible She
Inside Soviet Schools
Moscow Conversations
THE AGE OF
AMERICAN UNREASON

THE AGE OF
AMERICAN
UNREASON
SUSAN JACOBY
mum
Pantheon Books • New York
Copyright © 2008 by Susan Jacoby
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York,
and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
An excerpt from I. F. Stone: A Portrait by Andrew Patner
appears courtesy of Pantheon Books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jacoby, Susan, [date]
The age of American unreason / Susan Jacoby.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-375-42374-1
United States—Civilization—1945- 2. United States—Social conditions—1945-
. Mass media—Social aspects—United States. 4. Popular culture—United States.
5. Reason—Social aspects—United States. 6. Social values—United States.
Social psychology—United States. 8. National characteristics, American. I. Title.
E169.Z83J33 2008
973.91 —dc22 20070215 62
www.pantheonbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
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