In this selection from her searing cultural history of the last half century, Susan Jacoby chronicles the menacing surge of anti-rationalism in contemporary American life and the degradation of public speech in presidential rhetoric, radio broadcast, television, and internet media where homogenized language and thought reinforce each other in circular fashion.  

At today's critical political juncture, in which boastful ignorance has infected public discourse at the highest levels  of government and throughout ordinary social media,  this impassioned, tough-minded work challenges Americans to face the painful truth about what the flight from intellectualism, facts, and truth have cost us as individuals and as a nation.

A Vintage Shorts Selection. An ebook short.