The Closing of the American Mind

Publisher Comments: The Closing of the American Mind, a publishing phenomenon in hardcover, is now a paperback literary event. In this acclaimed number one national best-seller, one of our country's most distinguished political philosophers argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Allan Bloom's sweeping analysis is essential to understanding America today. It has fired the imagination of a public ripe for change. Synopsis: The Closing of the American Mind, a publishing phenomenon in hardcover, is now a paperback literary event. In this acclaimed number one national best-seller, one of our country's most distinguished political philosophers argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Allan Bloom's sweeping analysis is essential to understanding America today. It has fired the imagination of a public ripe for change. 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

Allan Bloom is 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 has 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. His other books are Plato's Republic (translator and editor), Politics and the Arts: Rousseau's Letter to d'Alembert (translator and editor), Rousseau's Emile (translator and editor), and Shakespeare's Politics (with Harry V. Jaffa). He lives in Chicago.