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A review by greg_talbot
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
1.0
Feebeled young minds of America, watch out! Allan Bloom takes on 'Higher Education'. He attempts to show how its weak-spirited curriculum has little to help the young grow and prosper
into fully realized educated adults.
With heaviness and drama, Bloom explains how contemporary culture - music, books,cultural thought, relationships pale in comparison to the classics. Wistfully he ponders how his pure heart opened with joy when he first came to University of Chicago, and became acquainted with the classic thinkers: Rousseau, Plato, Nietzche.
Bloom is certainly from another time and place (and proud of it!). I can look past the snobbery and high-browed judgement to a degree. The cardinal complaint is just how often Bloom abandons his argument. He mixes personal experience, classical literature and very much his own whipped up opinion on everything in between. It's the effect of someone talking down to you for hours about the good old days, and how poor your experience is. Bloom comes off as an educated idiot: bloated opinions, thoughtless in thoughts and out of touch.
I'm struck by how many complaints of higher education are not even acknowledged in this book.. Bloom's book was written before the astronomical rise of college costs. It was conceived before the 2008 housing depression and jobless recovery. The book was written before the emphasis on "No Child Left Behind" and standardized test mentalities. The
Bloom's book did spawn all types of ideas for me. How can a book be so big, but offer so little? How did this book become a cultural phenomenon in 1987? What is prescriptive here, or is it all naval gazing?
Questioning cultural relativity and questioning the educational model of university programs is the type of book I would be interested in. The leaders that Bloom is enamored with (Marx, Heidegger, Plato) also fascinate me. There is a lot that can be learned from the source material of those thinkers.
Bloom really gets in the way of any argument and prevents any learning experience . There are types I sympathize with some his views, and admire his defense of high art and classical tradition. His praise of great literature in particular was rousing, and I too agree much can be learned from reading it. Frankly the book is more an expression of his own fancies than any well-delivered prescription.
into fully realized educated adults.
With heaviness and drama, Bloom explains how contemporary culture - music, books,cultural thought, relationships pale in comparison to the classics. Wistfully he ponders how his pure heart opened with joy when he first came to University of Chicago, and became acquainted with the classic thinkers: Rousseau, Plato, Nietzche.
Bloom is certainly from another time and place (and proud of it!). I can look past the snobbery and high-browed judgement to a degree. The cardinal complaint is just how often Bloom abandons his argument. He mixes personal experience, classical literature and very much his own whipped up opinion on everything in between. It's the effect of someone talking down to you for hours about the good old days, and how poor your experience is. Bloom comes off as an educated idiot: bloated opinions, thoughtless in thoughts and out of touch.
I'm struck by how many complaints of higher education are not even acknowledged in this book.. Bloom's book was written before the astronomical rise of college costs. It was conceived before the 2008 housing depression and jobless recovery. The book was written before the emphasis on "No Child Left Behind" and standardized test mentalities. The
Bloom's book did spawn all types of ideas for me. How can a book be so big, but offer so little? How did this book become a cultural phenomenon in 1987? What is prescriptive here, or is it all naval gazing?
Questioning cultural relativity and questioning the educational model of university programs is the type of book I would be interested in. The leaders that Bloom is enamored with (Marx, Heidegger, Plato) also fascinate me. There is a lot that can be learned from the source material of those thinkers.
Bloom really gets in the way of any argument and prevents any learning experience . There are types I sympathize with some his views, and admire his defense of high art and classical tradition. His praise of great literature in particular was rousing, and I too agree much can be learned from reading it. Frankly the book is more an expression of his own fancies than any well-delivered prescription.