reviewed on my website

This was a book I basically enjoyed. While I agree with her premise, I found at times that I wanted more citations in support of some of her assertions. Without them, her arguments were less convincing. ( )

Susan Jacoby goes through all the problems of American educational culture: the over-reliance on media (especially TV, but also internet), religious fundamentalism, pop culture, the problems of our public education system and the decline of the 'middle-brow' culture. Not too many surprises for people who have paid attention and have despaired of the mindlessness of public discourse, but it does make for a good overview of what our current problems are. ( )

Great historical overview of anti-intellecualism in America.
But hit-and-miss as a diagnosis of contemporary ills that contribute to anti-intellectual American sentiment. Jacoby wants to defend intellectualism and respect for expertise. But her case is undermined by her failure to separate real intellection from a kind of cultural refinement of tastes that is merely snobbish.

Here's what Jacoby doesn't understand: There are justified form of elitism where greater literacy derives from intellectual curiosity and rigorous examination of the world, and there are unjustified forms of elitism where certain cultural tastes are privileged over others purely because of their heritage within the upper classes. Intellectuals unfortunately practice both kinds of elitism, and (typically conservative) culture warriors attack both without distinction. When culture warriors and ignorati sneer at claims of "pointy-headed intellectual elites", the error is conflating intellectual rigor and artistrocratic snobbery: in reacting to the latter, they discount the former. In this book, Jacoby unfortunately makes the same mistake, but from the opposite side: She doesn't distinguish between knowledge and aristocratic taste, becoming an apologist for the latter while defending the former. Thus we get a blistering and effective critique of the dumbing-down of american education and discourse and the right-wing's war on science and expertise...but in the next breath we get a bizarre and evidence-free attack on video media, pop culture studies, and even mainstream social science. These latter attacks are leveled with little actual argument, and no nuance. What's going on here?

Well, excuse me, but no intellectual purpose is served by knee-jerk reactions to new technologies or recommendations that something not be studied. A truly intellectual culture is progressive and cumulative. It examines every aspect of itself at every point of its evolution. It is a signature of an intellectual culture that older wisdom and knowledge are supplanted with newer forms a result of new evidence and continual critical examination. That means certain theories, idea, writers, pieces of art, and other cultural artifacts are necessarily going to be at risk of fading into obscurity as their values are updated by the continuing influx new knowledge. So it goes. If there is an argument that some cultural artifact you encountered in your youth has been unjustly devalued, then lets hear that argument. But don't sneer at society just because you are being forced to adapt.

This is not a bad book. Despite the rant above, I did enjoy most of it. The good points have been aptly covered by others. But the handful of flaws are striking in their irony, and so...unnecessary. The verdict: insightful but frustrating. ( )

wonderful ( )