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A review by kbc
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby
1.0
1. Read Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life instead of this. Yes, it ends in the early '60s, but provides a much better overview of the history of anti-intellectualism in America.
2. This, at its heart, is a nostalgia book. Jacoby longs for the days of her middlebrow upbringing in her white, middle-class family in the '50s. And with all nostalgia, it glosses over how this upbringing with good schools and plenty of books was denied to those segregated either by law or red-lines. She even glosses over the damaged caused by HUAC and McCarthyism.
3. This book is incredibly white, for lack of a better term. Jacoby seems to believe that if children are just brought up with the western canon + a few exceptions, they will obviously be smart and educated citizens. The book never grapples with the vast inequalities of education within the United States. The government can put standards on education but if funding is not available to allow students to even attempt to achieve those standards, how on earth can schools produce educated citizens? Aside from a few throwaway sentences, Jacoby refuses to grapple with affects of racism that has set up a system in which minority students are actively denied a decent education throughout the United States, not just in the South.
4. I was also disappointed in her unwillingness to wonder why anti-intellectualism is popular in America. Why does a vast proportion of America find comfort in fundamentalist religion? Why are American not curious about the rest of the world?
5. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. For someone so concerned with literacy and access to books, it's amazing how little she is concerned with access to libraries. The only time she mentioned them was in conjunction with her childhood, as if they ceased to exist in the present time.
I'm actually kind of cranky that I read this through to the end. And in response, I've decided to read a Patricia Cornwell book in protest, despite not having a trans-atlantic flight scheduled (because I can't afford one.)
2. This, at its heart, is a nostalgia book. Jacoby longs for the days of her middlebrow upbringing in her white, middle-class family in the '50s. And with all nostalgia, it glosses over how this upbringing with good schools and plenty of books was denied to those segregated either by law or red-lines. She even glosses over the damaged caused by HUAC and McCarthyism.
3. This book is incredibly white, for lack of a better term. Jacoby seems to believe that if children are just brought up with the western canon + a few exceptions, they will obviously be smart and educated citizens. The book never grapples with the vast inequalities of education within the United States. The government can put standards on education but if funding is not available to allow students to even attempt to achieve those standards, how on earth can schools produce educated citizens? Aside from a few throwaway sentences, Jacoby refuses to grapple with affects of racism that has set up a system in which minority students are actively denied a decent education throughout the United States, not just in the South.
4. I was also disappointed in her unwillingness to wonder why anti-intellectualism is popular in America. Why does a vast proportion of America find comfort in fundamentalist religion? Why are American not curious about the rest of the world?
5. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. For someone so concerned with literacy and access to books, it's amazing how little she is concerned with access to libraries. The only time she mentioned them was in conjunction with her childhood, as if they ceased to exist in the present time.
I'm actually kind of cranky that I read this through to the end. And in response, I've decided to read a Patricia Cornwell book in protest, despite not having a trans-atlantic flight scheduled (because I can't afford one.)