The Closing of the American Mind

by Allan Bloom (Author), Saul Bellow (Foreword)

273 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0671479909

ISBN-10: 0671479903

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A critique of the intellectual and moral confusions of this age argues that the social/political crisis of twentieth-century America is actually an intellectual crisis, and shows how American democracy has hosted ideas of nihilism, despair, and relativism disguised as tolerance

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Plato said that music was a barbaric art form, and Bloom, translator of Plato's Republic, charges that rock 'n' roll's sole attraction is a "barbaric appeal to sexual desire." This University of Chicago professor claims that racial segregation among today's students is largely due to the fact that "blacks have become blacks" and stick together. He brands Margaret Mead as a "sexual adventurer" whose call for cultural diversity betrayed her indifference to American ideals embodied in th Declaration of Independence. Marred by the author's biases, this jeremiad laments the decay of the humanities, the decline of the family and students' spiritual rootlessness and unconnectedness to traditions. Bloom traces what he sees as as an antiEnlightenment attitude in our society that dates back to Rousseau. He calls for a "Great Books" educational program that would teach students the unity of the sciences, social sciences and arts.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Bloom is angry about college studentstolerant of everything, they cannot appreciate the virtues of Lockean democracy and often abandon the great questions about God and man. Meanwhile, the humanities are like "a refugee camp where all the geniuses driven out of their jobs and countries . . . are idling." The reason is partly relativism in the social sciences but largely German philosophers since Nietzsche, especially Heidegger, who "put philosophy at the service of German culture." Bloom's case about the humanities and German philosophy deserves an ear, but his students from "the twenty or thirty best U.S. universities" are nothing like my recent American students, who pursue the old questions with vim and vigor. Perhaps they do not belong to Bloom's elite. Leslie Armour, Philosophy Dept., Univ. of Ottawa, Canada
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hardcover: 392 pages
Publisher: Simon Schuster Trade (April 1, 1987)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0671479903
ISBN-13: 978-0671479909
Package Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 273 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #202 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Political
- #352 in Books > Deals in Books
- #1201 in Books > Education & Teaching > Higher & Continuing Education

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Donald Tilleman

One of the toughest books

December 13, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I have read, in recent memory.
Okay in all honesty I expected this book to be a shallow polemic along the lines of some of the "popular" authors today, pushing an agenda and setting up straw man arguments, to provide an illusion of balance. Bloom, never backs down or even bother to set up "illusory" counter theses to further his, he just piles on the examples, historical as well as contemporary to nail his indictment of the vapidness of modern "Higher Education."
His thesis that the university today, reflects the general detachment of American society from the Puritan moral values that were paramount throughout American history, is conclusion that I would not have put together.
Is this book dated? When I started reading it I would ha e said yes, but as I digest the matter I have just completed, I see in myself the same sins of "culture" and value relativism that he sees as the symptom of the deconstruction of a Liberal education. As a engineering graduate, I hear in my own thoughts of a "superior" education that had very little of the messy humanities as part of my experience. I see that attitude as a shortcoming after reading Bloom, and one that sadly will be difficult to correct. Not that I am going to give up my technical high-paying career to become a philosopher, but I will now be forced to read and reread the very authors that Bloom uses to bolster his argument that it is those questions about values and the role of Man in relation to everything else that is important.
I found myself lost in a sea of ideas that I really had not considered at times and Bloom has the tendency to be over pedantic at times. My lack of depth to fully critique his philosophical and historical arguments provides hope that perhaps I will broaden the depth of my literary and historical perspective as Bloom suggests is the failing of my liberal education.

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Asudulayev

A Thinking Man's Polemic rolled into a History of Western Philosophy

September 4, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I would recommend this book highly. It is interesting as a well-written polemic by someone who is not a mere, crass political commentator. It is a fascinating discussion of the history of Western philosophy. It is also an engaging discussion of what Bloom sees as the problems with modern higher education.

I was introduced to Bloom as a masterful translator of Plato's Republic. Bloom's thesis is that university's don't teach well anymore, because of what he describes as vulgar and lazy form of Nietzschian relativism. To make this point he first describes the symptoms of modern students. He then traces the development of Western philosophy that brought us to Nietzsche. He ends by explaining how a vulgarization of Nietzsche bred the sort of vague academic doctrines, most neatly described as various forms of critical theory, which he thinks do not serve the students of Universities.

What this work is, is a refreshing polemic against relativism. What this work is not, is a work of political commentary, though some have described it as such. There is nothing here approaching doctrinaire Left- or Right-wing thought (even of the late eighties, when it was written). Bloom deals with politics but does not move too much beyond Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

The analysis of students is not particularly original and would read like a diatribe of an old-fashioned guy but Bloom's ability to explain this with philosophy. The history of philosophy section is the middle of the book is also its intellectual center. One might not agree with all of his characterizations (of Nietzsche, especially), but it makes for a good analysis and will at least inspire one to read and re-read those older works. The final part deals with the university, and partially rehashes the history with special application to the development of the modern university. This is perhaps the weakest part of the book, only because the arguments had already been built up, and are fairly implicit in the first two thirds of the book.

Some have commented on the book as being difficult to follow because Bloom swerves off topic. I do not think that is fair: Bloom never forgets what he is writing, though he often adopts an ironical tone to illustrate a point, and since this can go one for a few pages, one might forget whether one is reading Bloom's exposition or his mocking of some theory of which he does not approve.

The bigger issue is that he sets up the history of Western philosophy as battles between art-as-creation and science-as-reason. He associates the former with the classical Greeks through to the thinkers of the enlightenment, and the latter with Nietzsche and his influences. He seems to believe that we have gone too far in the direction of the latter. However he never reconciles the two or even suggests such a reconciliation. This is a shame.

The university is not all of life and if one believes that one might still learn and philosophize outside the university, one wants to hear Bloom talk about the art/science dichotomy, rather than throw up his hands in frustration that no one in the modern university appreciates it.

As for a recommendation: if you like reading Nietzsche, you will like this. If you want a political diatribe (Wikipedia says that some people have described this book as starting the American "Culture Wars" -- yeah only for those people who did not actually rad the book) look elsewhere.

Kindle version worked great.

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Michael Tsarion

MANY COPIES, ONE ORIGINAL

December 26, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Ahead of its time. A penetrating masterpiece predicting the state of decay we now experience throughout America and the world. No understanding of our times can be had without a reading of this monumental critique of education and learning.

Although this book has served to launch many spinoffs, copies and careers, the original is certainly the best.

Cultural Marxists and Pinkos beware.

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R. Zerr

A great, though ominous, read!

December 2, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I am only about 145 pages into this book, but all I can say is that this is a must-read if you want to understand what is happening in the U.S. today. Bloom lays all this groundwork in 1987, which makes it all the more remarkable since many of the things he discusses have since and even recently come to pass, from our self-absorbed individualism to the use of patriotism as an ever-shifting platform for social indigence. A very thick read. You'll want to go through it like a textbook. But I must say, if I had started out highlighting passages, much of the book would now be yellow as I have shared so much of it with others.

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Most recent customer reviews

Janice V Cargo

brilliant minds.

I first read this book as a bestseller many years ago. Since that initial reading it has remained at the front of my bookshelf and affected my evaluation of current events...Read more

Published 12 days ago

Del

Three Stars

What did they expect would happen with the approach taken in the 50's to 70's in literature?

Published 24 days ago

Cadillac

Pompous, egotistical, smug, but so very accurate

Bloom is the type of character I would never hang around, the same is true of his books. There is a smell of leather and old money throughout the pages, a conceit you are born...Read more

Published 28 days ago

kjatha

On point after 20 years

Wonderful insight to the higher ed system. The preface in and of itself unpacks more than most entire books on the subject.

Published 1 month ago

Greg

The Closing of the Western Mind

It is I think a generally agreed part of the 'Culture Wars' that we live in a society which in many ways, seems to have lost its path.Read more

Published 3 months ago

morg111

Few forms of thought have such depth as to be ...

Few forms of thought have such depth as to be supported by much of history and indeed prove prophetic into modern times.

Published 4 months ago

Samuel

For a book supposedly about the closing of the American mind, this book seems very much geared towards people who already agree

For a book supposedly about the closing of the American mind, this book seems very much geared towards people who already agree with Bloom, as opposed to actually saying anything...Read more

Published 5 months ago

The How and Why of studying the Classics

The best written defense of classical liberal arts education written in the post-modern world.

Published 5 months ago

Stephen E. Bennett

This is a great book! Do not know how I missed it

This is a great book! Do not know how I missed it. Thanks!

Published 6 months ago

Richard McClintock

Five Stars

Good book. Recomended.

Published 6 months ago

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The Closing of the American Mind

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