The Age of American Unreason Paperback – February 10, 2009

This history-conscious book was recently updated from the original 2008 edition to take into account the Trump phenomenon. Senior journalist and public intellectual Jacoby delves deeply into the religious roots of anti-intellectualism and unreason as expressed by fundamentalist religion from the 19th century “Great Awakening”, through the 1920s Scopes trail, to the revival of fundamentalist / political / racial populism since 1970. However she seems less aware of how all this has been rooted in economic inequality, especially the escalating inequality since 1980. In addition, the focus on fundamentalism blurs the distinction between anti-intellectualism and unreason. For example, there are aspects of Catholicism, going back to Aquinas and the Jesuits, which are strongly intellectual but still dogmatic. The same phenomenon occurs with ideologies. For example, Marxism has some highly intellectual aspects (scientific and dialectical materialism, etc.) while also being dogmatic on certain doctrines, e.g., “labor theory of value”. Similarly neoclassical economic theory is highly intellectual but based on false doctrines – the greedy “economic man”, mechanistic rather than complexity-based models, etc. And today’s “Critical Theories” combine extreme intellectualism with dogmatic assertions of certain unscientific doctrines of race, gender, etc. It is clear that the human mind has two contradictory tendencies: (1) a strong liking for simplistic explanations and (2) a willingness to embrace elaborate theories to justify those explanations when they come up short. These tendencies are resolved by the scientific method, which looks for the simplest explanations (mathematical models) consistent with the evidence. Thus arguments over beliefs are replaced by arguments over evidence, and ambiguous theorizing is replaced by logic and calculation, combining into requirements for testability or falsifiability of assertions. Not being a scientist, Jacoby comes up short on the need to refocus general education on understanding and practicing the scientific method, not just facts, for civic, not just vocational, reasons. However, with considerable historical justification, Jacoby sees that “American anti-intellectualism represented the flip side of American democratic impulses in religion and education” (p xix). That is, “One of the most remarkable characteristics of America’s revolutionary generation was the presence and influence of so many genuine intellectuals” (p. xvii), yet they fostered democracy, not aristocracy, hence the most simple-minded forms of religion and education for the masses. What she fails to note is that this transition to anti-intellectualism in politics has been the norm for post-colonial societies. In fact the high-minded leaders of any successful endeavor or movement are often followed by more corrupt leaders until a new cycle of reform or innovation begins. Jacoby also notes that simplistic fundamentalist-type thinking on both the left and the right helps explain today’s extreme cultural and political polarization: “intellectuals and non-intellectuals alike, whether on the left or the right, tend to tune out any voice that is not an echo” (p xxviii), pointing out that Trump’s anti-intellectualism was preceded by Sarah Palin’s and that Obama was criticized for his intellectualism, such as his love of Shakespeare. However, Jacoby did not anticipate today’s growing backlash against anti-intellectualism and unreason, especially conspiracy theories and the like, by principled leaders across the political spectrum. That is, voices from the Enlightenment are once again echoing, even as the true believers dig in. Jacoby is an avowed atheist, hence not afraid to take on any religion, which, as Thomas Jefferson said, “picks my pocket” or “breaks my leg”. Thus religious justifications for outlawing all, or most, abortions should be rejected as they would needlessly cause financial or physical harm to some women. How about religious rejections of biological evolution in favor of the Genesis story? Here the consequences are less directly personal, but how could anyone who denies evolution comprehend the evidence for global climate change and its consequences for earth’s ecosystems? Thus religious beliefs could easily lead to societal, even civilizational harm. But Jacoby is not calling for the policing of religions but for open dialogue on the civic consequences of certain religious beliefs that have entered the political arena. In addition to religious beliefs, “is the issue of pseudoscience, which Americans on both the left and the right continue to imbibe as a means of rendering their social theories impervious to evidence based challenges” (p 83). Her prime examples are Marxism and Social Darwinism, but she also notes several powerful counter movements, such as the popular lyceum lectures of the early 1800s and the astounding success of H.G. Wells’ “Outline of History” in 1920, fueling “middlebrow culture” – more secular, in depth, and worldly expositions of recent discoveries. Think National Geographic magazine and now the proliferation of documentaries based on modern scholarship, historical novels and films too. Jacoby contrasts these with pseudoscientific fads in psychology, social theory, spirituality, self-help, career success, etc. I found Jacoby’s analysis of the 1960s counter-culture and the generation gap to be particularly interesting. She sees the WW II generation as, not great, but “grateful” – for victory, the GI Bill, plentiful jobs, and the rapid spread middle class lifestyles. But their children – we baby boomers - who took such progress for granted, demanded more. Not just material success, but a moral rectitude to match it - the civil rights, anti-war, and back-to-nature movements. This came across as “ungrateful” to many of their parents, who were also afraid of the consequences of revolutionary fervor. The result was an escalating political and cultural polarization, since many were left behind: “liberals and conservatives were no more interested in talking to one another on campuses during the 60s than they are today…One of the most reprehensible results of this abdication of responsibility was the ghettoization of African-American, women’s, and ethnic studies” (p 148). Meanwhile fundamentalist anti-intellectualism extended to “a new disdain for scientific as well as scholarly elites” combined with “hatred of liberal trends within churches themselves” (p 155). The Southern Baptists split off and became more fundamentalist, while the “Crusade for Christ” went sought to create a new youth movement, along with an expanding network of colleges and revivalist ministries and media. It was an era of ideological battlegrounds, such as Pope John XXIII versus Billy Graham, also of realignments, such as of fundamentalists with conservative Catholics and Jews, and liberal Protestants with liberal Catholics and Jews. Classical pseudoscience, like “intelligent design”, has now been overtaken by “junk thought”, like the claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism, despite massive studies that have found no correlation, let alone causal mechanism. In this case it happens that the MMR vaccine is given at about the same age that babies begin to show signs of autism, and the anti-vax activists are disregarding the basic scientific principle that “correlation is not causation”. Jacoby also cites “fat studies”, where objections to obesity are regarded as discriminatory, despite massive studies demonstrating negative health impacts from obesity. In this case, there is not only correlation but there are numerous causal mechanisms, although their may be uncertainty as to how those mechanisms operate in particular individuals. There have even been studies where certain health benefits are correlated with being slightly overweight, so Jacoby would be better off emphasizing the ongoing development of medical knowledge rather than simplistic attacks for or against fat. However, Jacoby jumps right into the mine fields of the gender wars, where controversial theories and studies abound. For example, she describes how some law students and faculty “have turned feminism upside-down by insisting that rape law not be part of the required curriculum because it would be too unsettling to too many female students” (p 242). Or that “new theories about the ‘boy brain, girl brain’ dichotomy cross political and cultural boundaries, extending from liberal academics to religious fundamentalists upholding the concept of divinely ordained separate spheres of responsibility for men and women” (p 233). Jacoby wraps up her critique by citing the “dumbing down” of public life. She suggests that “styles of presidential leadership are shaped by public knowledge – and lack of knowledge” (p 289) more than the personality of the president, with Trump’s twitter style being the perfect fit for all too many Americans. Or “public ignorance and anti-intellectualism are not identical, of course, but they are certainly kissing cousins” (p 290). The intellectual contrast between John Kennedy and Donald Trump seems to say it all, except that the public hold of the corresponding conspiracy theories (Kennedy assassination vs purported election fraud) shows that the situation today is far worse. Yet Jacoby is confident that at some point “unassailable reality will challenge the delusions and shatter the illusions of Americans in the post-truth era that provided the soil for Trumpism” (p 308). Meanwhile she assigns us the mission of “cultural conservation…the urgent task at this dismal epoch in American intellectual history. What can be saved, and how can it be saved, until the return of sanity in a post-post-truth era?” (p 316). But what form will this reality check take? She suggests cultural backlash, but for fundamental change, I’d look deeper, into climate disasters, geopolitical defeats, economic crises, pandemics, resource or ecosystem shocks, and more.

Jacoby's  Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism , her previous book, was a masterpiece, made clearly evident given the pervasiveness in which other authors have cited that book. Freethinkers was a history of secular thought in America while Jacoby's new book, The Age of American Reason, provides a current day analysis on the results that occur when much of America shuns rational thought in favor of either ideological dogma, both right and left, and/or sheer intellectual laziness. Jacoby's perspective covers a different topic per chapter, where the present-day rejection for optimal thinking is presented within the context of how we evolved from the past to our present day embrace of intellectual mediocrity amongst many large groups of Americans.Jacoby as a historian and thinker is worthy of our attention so I recommend this book along with Freethinkers. Given that this book is more topical, I doubt it will be read much years from now though I believe it's still worthy of our attention during this era. I predict Freethinkers will continue to be a valuable treasure that will heavily referenced for many years to come by other scholars. Jacoby is knowledgeable about the history of enlightenment thinking and our founding ideals, topics that run through most chapters as a common thread. She uses the approach to thinking which was heavily utilized by our founding framers and other great leaders of the past as a benchmark to compare to our current day approach to making sense of the world. For example, she compares current political speech to FDR's fireside chats broadcasted across America on the radio. FDR treated his fellow American citizens with deference and respect while also challenging them to study up on the geography and geopolitics in play during WWII. This compares favorably when Jacoby analyzes the type of communications we receive from modern-day presidents where obvious, non-shallow questions are always avoided and they assume we're idiots that are easily manipulated and gullible to nonsensical soundbites (e.g., the oft-stated "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman" - a totally irrelevant point when considering the denial of property, contract, liberty and equal protection rights of other citizens).The topic of our leaders talking down to us comes from her first two chapters which covers communications from our political leaders to the public. My initial response was that was hardly a good topic to start this book if you were looking for a persuasive argument that would cause America to consider a change in our behavior, it seemed too petty to me. Seeing Jacoby interviewed by Bill Moyer on this topic did little to persuade me otherwise. However, soon after reading that chapter, I heard Romney's and Obama's speeches on religion.Romney offered a false history of America, assuming we'd be ignorant to his lies. His speech seemed to have the objective of plagiarizing the impact that Kennedy's speech had on the same topic while at the same time offering raw meat to social conservatives in order to gain political capital with them. Few were fooled while Tim Russert tore Romney apart on his Meet the Press appearance for lying in the speech. Obama's speech soared to heights not experienced by me in public life since Reagan and MLK last spoke to America and quickly showed this Republican what a special talent Obama was in this day and age. That experience had me rereading the first chapter with newfound respect for how important Ms. Jacoby's point was - that if America was going to regain our competitive advantage in the world after the Bush 43 years, that we will require a more demanding voter who swiftly rejects those that pander and lie to us, while embracing those whose policies are based on sound assertions and are willing to give it to us in a nuanced, truthful manner rather than in soundbites meant to obfuscate - even if we don't agree with them, i.e., better to pick a smart person we disagree with than support an idiot who tells us what the lowest common denominator wants to hear.Each chapter of American Unreason is presented as a discrete essay covering a different topic, in fact each of them could have been an excellent Atlantic magazine article, which leads me to hope that some good media outlet will snap Jacoby up and allow America more access to Jacoby's excellent analyses beyond her occasional books. A few of the topics covered in the book are as follows:Communications - how politicians never really answer to anyone while media outlets rely on ever-shorter sound-bites while also failing to correct false assertions made by the people they cover. E.g., those that claim they are a champion of individual rights while advocating for a constitutional amendment that discriminates against gay people and their children and other family members - follow ups are never asked by the media to portray this obvious contradiction (my example, not necessarily Jacoby's).Social pseudoscience from the left and the right, mostly starting in the late 19th century and how it's affected today's culture, e.g., the right's embrace of social Darwinism was an especially interesting section of this chapter.America mutates from glorifying its best and brightest to a more middlebrow culture, turning elitism into a bad word. This topic shows Jacoby's predictive powers given how this is currently a political issue after publication of this book. Jacoby reminds the reader that America's greatest were mostly elitists aspiring to ambitious ideals. "Junk thought" - particularly her attack on liberal learning institutions providing equal time to topics Jacoby finds trivial to forming and bettering western thought (like college classes on popular movies and pop music).Cultural Distraction - which is also getting more notice in the popular press recently, especially this month's Atlantic magazine article on the Googlization of America. This is where I part ways with Ms. Jacoby; her understanding of the utilization of the Internet appears to be based more on her inexperience and lack of time and search skills on-line than any empirical evidence. Certainly her criticisms are valid on how its misused and the quality of some of its content, but because she herself has obviously not devoted the time to find the resources that make the Internet a much more productive forum for learning about specific topics relative to finding the right book, I would argue her critique is based on too narrow a context - i.e., her own experience as an obvious nontechie vs. any actual shortcomings of worthy material that exists online.In summary - a great book to savor, the discreteness of its topics allows the reader to read a chapter and then set the book aside for future review or even to read the book in a haphazard manner, no matter how a reader approaches this book, it's worthy of everyone's library.

I simply loved this book. An impassioned defense and celebration of liberalism, secularism and the joy of books, this is a thought provoking, entertaining and sometimes challenging read. Always fair, always balanced, and always full of clarity, the author makes clear in this very readable book, her disdain of junk, unprovable thought and of policy and advocacy based on emotion, religous dogmatism and partisan politics rather than reason.Although primarily concerned with the United States,this book has strong resonance in the UK and is well worth reading for those who care about education and the development of reasoned thought wherever they may live.Although I do not share all of the author's concerns about the impacts of the internet, of social media, or of popular culture, her concerns about the celebration of ignorance, and the belittling of intellectualism are relevant and highly persuasive throughout, particularly in the last few chapters which made me want to applaud and cheer out loud.An excellent book, and one of the best I have read for many a year.

As it says on the label . Those who wonder how the US could go from a hopeful republic with its high ideals toa land of so many poorly educated, backward rightwingers will love this. Strangely it is not at all anti American and the book shines with examples of good ol US brilliance.Havent finished it but am enthralled.P

Wonderful Susan Jacoby...totally up to her high standard!

Great product and delivery

Good as far as it goes, especially on history. Good description (but no really good explanation) of how Americans far more than Europeans have resisted Darwinian biological science, but swallowed the pseudoscience and ideology of social Darwinism.The book describes the deep roots of American suspicion of intellectuals, but I found the explanations unconvincing. For instance, I'm not sure it was ever the case that life was intrinsically far harder in the US than in Europe, and this has certainly not been the case for several generations. There is a shortage of hard facts even when the facts are available (for instance, it would be interesting to have some numbers about book publication rates and sales, and how these have been affected by electronic media).The description of recent events suffers from a kind of intellectual introversion. Thus there are seven references to Irving Kristol, but only two to Palin, one to Rush Limbaugh, and none to Huckabee or the Discovery Institute.I would also have liked to see a comparison between the US and other countries. Do like technological causes produce like effects? If not, why not?There is also far too little on the effects of politicised school boards, or of the electoral primary system.There are some important books waiting to be written on these subjects.