Overview

"More than just a huge #1 bestseller, this is one of the great and vitally important books of our time. Allan Bloom, a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago and a noted translator of Plato and Rousseau, argues that the social and political crisis of twentieth century America is really an intellectual crisis. From the universities' lack of purpose to their students' lack of learning, from the jargon of liberation to the supplanting of reason by ""creativity,"" Bloom shows how American democracy has unwittingly played host to vulgarized Continental ideas of nihilism and despair, of relativism disguised as tolerance. Bloom demonstrates that the collective mind of the American university is closed to the principles of the Western tradition, and that it is especially closed to the spiritual heritage of the West, which gave rise to the university in the first place."

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9781441746115

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Reviews

Christopher Hurt brings a kindness to his reading that softens [Bloom's] often cutting observations and makes the text even more broadly appealing than it might otherwise seem. -- Library Journal Provocative...The author's intelligence and passion about his subject are strongly conveyed through Christopher Hurt's lilting reading...[Hurt] seems to draw you into deep conversation, discussing the concepts with you, rather than leaving you to struggle over them. -- AudioFile Narrator Hurt gives perfect voicing to Bloom's prose, which is both grave and witty. Like Bloom, Hurt's narrative tone is often pompous but deeply passionate about the ideas presented. -- Kliatt With clarity, gravity, and grace, Bloom makes a convincing case for the improbable proposition that reading old books about the permanent questions could help to reestablish reason and restore the soul. -- Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard University Brilliant...No other book combines such shrewd insights into our current state...No other book is at once so lively and so deep, so witty and so thoughtful, so outrageous and so sensible, so amusing and so chilling...An extraordinary book. -- Wall Street Journal

Christopher Hurt brings a kindness to his reading that softens [Bloom's] often cutting observations and makes the text even more broadly appealing than it might otherwise seem. -- Library Journal Narrator Hurt gives perfect voicing to Bloom's prose, which is both grave and witty. Like Bloom, Hurt's narrative tone is often pompous but deeply passionate about the ideas presented. -- Kliatt Provocative...The author's intelligence and passion about his subject are strongly conveyed through Christopher Hurt's lilting reading...[Hurt] seems to draw you into deep conversation, discussing the concepts with you, rather than leaving you to struggle over them. -- AudioFile With clarity, gravity, and grace, Bloom makes a convincing case for the improbable proposition that reading old books about the permanent questions could help to reestablish reason and restore the soul. -- Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard University Brilliant...No other book combines such shrewd insights into our current state...No other book is at once so lively and so deep, so witty and so thoughtful, so outrageous and so sensible, so amusing and so chilling...An extraordinary book. -- Wall Street Journal

Author Information

Allan Bloom is Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the College and codirector 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. Christopher Hurt is an accomplished narrator with a lengthy resume of popular titles for Blackstone. A graduate of George Washington University's acting program, he currently resides in New York City.

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