Closing of the American Mind [Paperback]

This work by a University of Chicago professor was a bestseller in cloth. According to PW, "marred by the author's biases, this jeremiad laments the decay of the humanities, the decline of the family and students' spiritual rootlessness and unconnectedness to traditions."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bloom is angry about college studentstolerant of everything, they cannot appreciate the virtues of Lockean democracy and often abandon the great questions about God and man. Meanwhile, the humanities are like "a refugee camp where all the geniuses driven out of their jobs and countries . . . are idling." The reason is partly relativism in the social sciences but largely German philosophers since Nietzsche, especially Heidegger, who "put philosophy at the service of German culture." Bloom's case about the humanities and German philosophy deserves an ear, but his students from "the twenty or thirty best U.S. universities" are nothing like my recent American students, who pursue the old questions with vim and vigor. Perhaps they do not belong to Bloom's elite. Leslie Armour, Philosophy Dept., Univ. of Ottawa, Canada
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"Rich and absorbing. . . . A grand tour of the American mind."

--"The Washington Post Book World"

The Closing of the American Mind, a publishing phenomenon in hardcover, is now a paperback literary event. In this acclaimed number one national best-seller, one of our country's most distinguished political philosophers argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Allan Bloom's sweeping analysis is essential to understanding America today. It has fired the imagination of a public ripe for change.

Allan Bloom was Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College and co-director of the John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy at the University of Chicago. He taught at Yale, University of Paris, University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, and Cornell, where he was the recipient of the Clark Teaching Award in 1967. He died in 1992.

This provocative book by professor Allan Bloom laments the decay of the humanities, the decline of universities, and the spiritual rootlessness and un-connectedness to traditions of today's students. The author's intelligence and passion about his subject are strongly conveyed through Christopher Hurt's lilting reading. Hurt's tenor voice is clear and compelling, and he uses appropriate inflection. Tape markings are good; pace and sound are consistent throughout. Hurt's reading is an effective way to absorb the book. He seems to draw you into deep conversation, discussing the concepts with you, rather than leaving you to struggle over them. If only we had the opportunity to argue! J.A.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.