The Age of American Unreason
by Susan Jacoby
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Book Summary Information
Author: Susan JacobyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-12
ISBN: 0375423745
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Age of American Unreason
Book Review: A Blow to the Use of Reason
Summary: 1 Stars
I've not read a book where I agreed with the thesis as much, and then disagreed completely with the means to get there. Other reviews have touched on this, but to add a few comments on the research for this book:
1. The use of two convenient statistics to prove a point that can easily be countered by other data is rampant in this book, and detracts from the book's weight. Example: The author asserts that because Southerners tend to have worse educations, they are more likely to hold religious beliefs that are in the Christian fundamentalist camp, and believe in Creationism. There is no evidence presented that education and religious affiliation have a strong correlation. (There is ample evidence that education is poorly related to fundamentalism in all religions, un-cited in the book.)
2. The search for demons to blame for why we are frequently irrational is laced with folly. Humans are irrational by nature, and we fight tooth and nail with our baser instincts daily to rise above it. The book seems to want to rationalize unreason more than define its true roots.
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