Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip Mining of American Culture

By Katherine Washburn and John Thornton

Book Overview

This is a collection of essays which confront the decline in American life, art and thought, once so full of richness and vitality. The contributors speculate on the reasons why a vibrant legacy of knowledge, tradition and competence came to be so rapidly squandered. Can this dumbing down be halted or reversed?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393038297
• ISBN13: 9780393038293
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
• Length: 329 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Looking for the Exit

I read a lot, but there is no book I have reread as much as Dumbing Down. The editors--Wasburn and Thornton - have chosen their twenty-five essays with such care that one hardly minds he is in pretty well-walked over territory: the attack on zany feminism, the indecipherable mission of current secondary school curricula, the total surrender of English departments in their once noble chore of trying to teach composition, MTV as felt thought, postmodernism, and the now arcane epistemology of once what was an accessible field-- the social sciences. To this last field, the essayist and Chair of the Department of Sociology of City College, City University of New York, Steven Goldberg, shares with the reader what he calls a "haggis of overwritten nonsense" common to introductory texts: We need a language that enables us to perpetually and conceptually negotiate our way between sameness and opposition, that permits the recognition of kinship in difference and difference among kin; a language that encodes respect for difference, particularly , alterity without repudiating the underlying affinity that is the first prerequisite for knowledge (98). Every essay is as well written as Goldberg's and equal to the task of allowing the target to blow himself up with his own petard. Thus, if the postmodern scene is not quite to your liking -- but you never knew quite why-- these twenty-five essayists will give you the compass.

Goes against the grain of culture... and so it should!

This must be the most politically incorrect book that you could read. But that is its strongest point. You have to be incorrect today to think properly. Behind every great movement which overturned a declining society there has been incorrectness. This book bucks the tide. It is unashamedly non-conformist. For that reason, it is a wonderfully stimulating read. My guess is that it will only appeal to those who already think like the authors. But if it does enlighten a dyed in the wool follower of political correctness that will be a welcome marvel!

definitely a mixed bag -- but a must read in any case!

This book, along with Berman's "Twilight of American Culture" are *must-reads* for anyone 20-40yrs old with small children or contemplating family life. Not all essays in this book are good - and some are downright muddled. But the importance of the messages here should *not* be disregarded. It is hard to be calm in the face of what is obvious to any thinking person in the US today - the thin veneer of "civility" that is the hallmark of culture (indeed, civilization) is quickly being "stripped" from all facets of American life. Rudeness, brutishness, and brashness have become the dominant methods of interaction in this society - and the *only* rewarded methods of "speaking" today. I tremble at the thought of the *next* generation of youngsters, when the grandparents of today are long buried and "civility" has completely disappeared from our lives. In short, there *will* be many more Columbines, many more "road rage" shootings, many more "debates" between tweedledee and tweedledum in our political spheres. (Even our top-rated TV show "Survivor" lauds cut-throat cruelty as the way to "get ahead." I suppose that true "deserted island" messages that one gets from, say, the famous Shackleton south-pole survival mission are just too *boring*.) Secondly, it is high time that "leftists" stop pretending that we are somehow muddling through; I personally abhor the simplistic positions of right-wing demagogues. But do not kid yourself that "pop culure" will somehow right itself. You do not have to vote for extreme-right politics to know that this society is far "off the rails." The left managed to overthrow traditional authority. This did *not* free us from authority, but rather transferred authority to the nebulous realm of marketing and advertising (and besides, isn't everyone doing it?)! Read this book. Read Berman's book. And if I may be so bold as to suggest something - if the state of US "culture" bothers you, maybe you could try doing the little things again, things that your grandmother took for granted (like speaking to your neighbors!). If the leftists ever got anything right, it is true - the children *are* watching.

Dumbing Down Is Smart But Too Scabrous

A mixed bag - like many edited collections. Many of the essays are vigorous and unsparing such as MacDonald's fine essay on the erosion of composition skills in our nation's universities, Epstein's virtolic attack against the political prejudices of the NEA, and Klinghoffer's witty account of kitsch religion. Moreover, the essays on the erosion and degradation of the physical and social sciences are persuasive and well-argued. Many of the essays, however, and more surprisingly those of the more renowed authors, have far less substance than style. Cynthia Ozick's essay on the decline of literate culture veers off into a discussion of Henry James and ends up seeming beside the point; John Simon's elitist and pretentious grousing makes one sympathetic to the defenders of popular culture; Kennan just rehashes Tocqueville and adds little else. Sadly, many articles also display a particularly slanted point of view - thus, for example, the trouble with education are multiculturalist teachers not the tragic underfunding of American education which the eloquent books of Jonathan Kozol amply disprove. Many of the essayists ignore larger social and economic factors which played a role in our cultural deterioration and instead point fingers at egregious culprits - spacey lit. crit. teachers, television talk show hosts. I still recommend the book despite its numerous flaws - including a totally needless introductory composite of extracts signaling our incipient doom (one quotes dates all the way back to 1960 which made me wonder why they just didn't up and cite Spengler while they were at it) - because a fair number of essays provide enough incisive commentary into the deleterious effects of a completely commercialized culture to warrant a sustained reading.

A mostly well-written collection of essays

A collection of fairly well-written essays which are generally critical of how the current American systems, educational and otherwise,expect less and less of us citizens intellectually. While some balance of views was attempted by the authors, most of the essays carry the message that we, as a nation, are headed the wrongway down the cultural and intellectual roadway. I found the articles very timely and very informative, particularly those about the educational theories which gave rise to a lower expectation of achievement in reading and writing. All in all, a very thought-provoking collection, although I certainly did not agree with all of the views expressed in the various essays. It was refreshing to view a collection of views, rather than reading a group of critiques which all flowed from the same pen. I strongly recommend this work - It may be the best of the culteral "doom and gloom" books which are prevalent today.