The Age of American Unreason

Susan Jacoby

May 2008 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

About this audiobook

Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon-one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, Jacoby surveys an antirationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Disdain for logic and evidence defines a pervasive malaise fostered by the mass media, triumphalist religious fundamentalism, mediocre public education, a dearth of fair-minded public intellectuals on the right and the left, and, above all, a lazy and credulous public. Jacoby offers an unsparing indictment of the American addiction to infotainment-from television to the Web-and cites this toxic dependency as the major element distinguishing our current age of unreason from earlier outbreaks of American anti-intellectualism and antirationalism. With reading on the decline and scientific and historical illiteracy on the rise, an increasingly ignorant public square is dominated by debased media-driven language and received opinion. At this critical political juncture, nothing could be more important than recognizing the "overarching crisis of memory and knowledge" described in this impassioned, tough-minded book, which challenges Americans to face the painful truth about what the flights from reason has cost us as individuals and as a nation.

Ratings and reviews

this was a real pleasure to read and I'm glad that I did. the author obviously put a lot of time probably years into writing it. Her literary voice is really a pleasure, something to enjoy. Her scathing sarcasm is a lot of fun. she generated a lot of empathy from me. I gave it a slightly lower rating because her rants became tiresome. But they don't ruin the book by any means, they are its whole point. after this I will probably read at least another book by Susan Jacoby.

About the author

Susan Jacoby is the author of more than ten books, including the New York Times bestseller The Age of American Unreason. She is a frequent contributor to national publications, including the Times and the Washington Post.

Actress and director Cassandra Campbell has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks and has received multiple Audie Awards and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman.