
The Closing of the American Mind
How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students
Allan Bloom(Author)
Simon & Schuster (Publisher)
Published on 3. April 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-4516-8320-2 (ISBN)
Description
The brilliant, controversial, bestselling critique of American culture that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times)—now featuring a new afterword by Andrew Ferguson in a twenty-fifth anniversary edition.
In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites.
Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.
In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (The New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites.
Now, in this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.
More details
Edition
Reissue ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
347 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4516-8320-2 (9781451683202)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Allan Bloom
Closing of the American Mind
E-Book
06/2008
1st Edition
Simon + Schuster LLC
€14.83
Available for download
Persons
Allan Bloom was professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College and co-director of the John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy at the University of Chicago. He taught at Yale, University of Paris, University of Toronto, Tel Aviv University, and Cornell, where he was the recipient of the Clark Teaching Award in 1967. He died in 1992.
Content
Contents
Foreword by Saul Bellow
Preface
Introduction: Our Virtue
PART ONE. STUDENTS
The Clean Slate
Boob
Music
Relationships
Self-Centeredness
Equality
Race
Sex
Separateness
Divorce
Love
Eros
PART TWO. NIHILISM, AMERICAN STYLE
The German Connection
Two Revolutions and Two States of Nature
The Serf
Creativity
Culture
Values
The Nietzscheanization of the Left or Vice Versa
Our Ignorance
PART THREE. THE UNIVERSITY
From Socrates' Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede
Tocqueville on Democratic Intellectual Life
The Relation Between Thought and Civil Society
The Philosophic Experience
The Enlightenment Transformation
Swift's Doubts
Rousseau's Radicalization and the German University
The Sixties
The Student and the University
Liberal Education
The Decomposition of the University
The Disciplines
Conclusion
Index