The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves
by Curtis White
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Description
Social critic Curtis White describes a little-noticed force taking over our culture and our lives that he calls the Middle Mind: the current failure of the American imagination in the media, politics, education, art, technology, and religion. Irreverent, provocative, and far-reaching, contemptuous of the Right's narrowness and incredulous before the Left's convolutions, White presents a clear vision of this dangerous mindset that threatens America's intellectual and cultural freedoms, show more concluding with an imperative to reawaken and unleash the once powerful American imagination.--From publisher description. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
An interesting book. Sometimes I think he simplifies some issues, but he makes you think. Society is changing, Corporations are getting more powerful than Countries, we are all being encouraged to be middle or low-brow. Not to want excellence in anything and not to read outside the box.
He points at the fact that rocking the boat can and will cause problems with other people, particularly governments and corporations and that it really is in no-one's interest short-term to do so, however if we don't occasionally rock the boat what other people want us to do is what will happen, whether it serves our long-term interests or not.
He points at the fact that rocking the boat can and will cause problems with other people, particularly governments and corporations and that it really is in no-one's interest short-term to do so, however if we don't occasionally rock the boat what other people want us to do is what will happen, whether it serves our long-term interests or not.
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Author Information
24+ Works 840 Members
Curtis White is the author of the novels Memories of My Father Watching TV and Requiem. A widely acclaimed essayist, his work appears regularly in Context, The Village Voice, In These Times, and Harper's. He is the current president of the Center for Book Culture/Dalkey Archive Press
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2003
- Dedication
- for John, Nick, Charlie, and David, whose respective geniuses have made the ongoing Normal years something extraordinary for me.
- First words
- I've suspected for some time that there's something missing in the way we usually construct the Culture Wars.
Introduction: One afternoon, about fifteen years ago, the artist Nicolas Africano and I were visiting a common friend, Bill Morgan, who was recovering from surgery in a hospital here in Normal, Illinois.
Foreword: First a Brain Wash, Then Freedom of Speech
In the summer of 2001, in the course of my habitual dipping into and out of what passes in American culture for Culture, it felt as if my nose were being rubbed in somet... (show all)hing. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)If we can learn to use them, perhaps we will someday answer Williams's question, "What would have happened in a world...lit by the imagination?"
- Blurbers
- Colapinto, John; Zizek, Slavoj; Palast, Greg; Codrescu, Andrei; Wallace, David Foster; de Graaf, John (show all 8); Birkerts, Sven; Blythe, Will
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Sociology, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 303.3720973 — Society, government, & culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Social processes Coordination and control Social norms Belief systems and customs North America United States
- LCC
- HN90 .M6 .W45 — Social sciences Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform Social history and conditions. Social problems. By region or country
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 306
- Popularity
- 103,240
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.00)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 8
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
