Nesmith Library

The closing of the American mind, how higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today's students, Allan Bloom

eng

index present

non fiction

The closing of the American mind

Allan Bloom

how higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today's students

In this book, the author (a distinguished political philosopher) argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis marked by obvious declines in appreciation of humanities, a drop in the qualitative output of our university systems, and a disquieting disconnect between today's students and the spiritual and cultural traditions of their heritage

Foreword / Saul Bellow -- Students. The clean slate -- Books -- Music -- Relationships -- Nihilism, American style. The German connection -- Two revolutions and two states of nature -- The self -- Creativity -- Culture -- Values -- The Nietzcheanization of the left or vice versa -- Our ignorance -- The university. From Socrates Apology to Heidegger's Rektoratsrede -- The Sixties -- The student and the university