The Closing of the American Mind

By: Allan Bloom

Narrated by: Christopher Hurt

Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

In one of the most 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 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Bloom cites everything from the universities' lack of purpose to the students' lack of learning, from the jargon of liberation to the supplanting of reason by so-called creativity. Furthermore, he shows how American democracy has unwittingly played host to vulgarized Continental ideas of nihilism and despair, of relativism disguised as tolerance, while demonstrating that the collective mind of the American university is closed to the very principles of spiritual heritage that gave rise to the university in the first place.

(P)1992 by Blackstone Audiobooks; ©1987 by Alan Bloom

Critic reviews

"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)

VERY IMPORTANT WORK!

Allen Bloom's THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND is monumentally important, especially in regard to its central assertion that the surface American education's first principle has for some time now been: "To avoid discrimination [particularly in regard to class, culture, race, and religion or lack thereof], one must be indescriminate in all. The one exception, and the thing to be hated, is the man who asserts otherwise." I am always just utterly amazed at how absolutely relativistic (parodox intended) 99% of my college students have become in their judgements (or rather lack of them) regarding lit and art. I push them to extremes. They will proclaim (as though programmed to say so--and Bloom says they are) that Brittney Spears "music" is every bit as good as Mozart's "for the person who hears it that way." I actually ask them if a pile of dog dung on a paper plate is as much art as Michalangelo's David, and you would not believe how many will, without a twitch, say that it is "if someone thinks it is," as though putting forth an opinion in regard to any obvious difference in quality will lead directly to the acceptance of Hitler's race policies--or, at least, they don't want to be viewed as having any "dangerous" opinions, whether or not they really have them. And this is Bloom's brilliant argument--"absolute freedom" (everything is equally good) has supplanted real freedom (the ability to say the truth or even think it). In another class, in which we study different models of morality, many students will assert with an absolute straight face (get ready!) that baby-torturing, if accepted by a given cultural as moral, would be a moral activity to take part in. What can one even say to such things?!--but Bloom saw this type of non-thinking and warned of the extremes to which it could, and would be taken.

A digest of the intellectual conservitive movement

Any additional comments?

I was struck by how little of this book was not familiar. I'm 38 years old, and I read a lot. The fact that I've heard almost all the arguments contained in this book, even though it's now 27 years since it was written, tells me that it has been very influential. Everything in it has been amplified by repetition.

So, it was not a book that "made me think," because I've heard it all before- from Bloom's description of conviction-less Gen X students to the influence of the Frankfurt School on American intellectuals. If you've glanced at National Review sometime in the last two decades you've seen it all.

That's not a hit on Bloom, because he's the original compiler. These ideas were all floating around, but he put them all in one place.

Honestly, the best part for me was early on. There's a good discussion of rock music, which will seem quaint to readers who've lived their entire lives in the era since the 1950s. Bloom is still right- the influence of music on the lives of the young is underrated. Much attention remains focused on other external influences such as video games or movies when it is music that matters. I think this part of the book has the deepest bite. People seem very defensive about their music, and music has an undue influence on their thinking. My coworkers spend hundreds of dollars on car stereos. I buy new tires instead. I get Bloom's point.

Overall, if you want to understand the intellectual side of the conservative movement this is a very good place to start. If you have a background in the liberal arts, especially in 19th and 20th century philosophy, that will help a lot. Otherwise it can be very hard going.

This isn't an anti-liberal screed so much as a Platonic defense of absolute truth, and the pursuit of the good. The extent to which this criticism falls on liberals is a result of their own abdication of the responsibility that they once took seriously- to educate the young in the service of building a better society. They don't even know what that is anymore, to their cost. Creating a blasted nihilistic world of the mind for our best and brightest is not a plan designed to produce an elite with the common good foremost in their minds.

The education of our elite is the subject of this book. Looking around, it's obvious that whatever education our current elite received it was sorely lacking in moral direction. If that's a conservative message, what happened to the liberals?

Explains so much of the Leftist nonsense we now see

Explains so much of the Leftist nonsense we now see on North American institutions of higher education these days.

The Devolution Of The University

A brilliant review of how the modern university came into being. It covers a wide range of philosophers from Aristotle to Nietzsche and examines their profound influence on western thought and the modern university. Bloom makes a sound case for the return to classical education.

interesting but contains a lot of fluff

very interesting though it seems filled with fluff, and could've been shortened with a couple of hours and still kept its message.

the recording also had alot of distracting backround noise.

Brilliant sophistry

Although profoundly influential in its day, this book reads more like a cry for personal vindication and is utterly unconvincing if occasionally brilliant in its execution

An essential classic on 21st cent Higher Education

This is an insightful classic on the troubles that plague higher education in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. (One issue is that you will find that if you turn it up loud enough, you will hear another voice in the background...someone else recording a different book; no, you are not crazy...there is a ghost voice in the background.)

I can definitely say I'll be listening to this 3x

I didn't wholeheartedly agree with everything he said but the book was insightful to say the least. I can say that this was a profound listen and will give it another listen in future times if I survive the coming PHASE II ....

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BACKGROUND NOISE - YOU ARE NOT GOING CRAZY

I am reviewing this completely from an audible perspective. How on Earth this became the final product for such a great book is astounding. There are background noises. I kept thinking that my blue tooth headphones were picking up conversations from the house next door or something. It's only distracting a little and I would hate for someone not to listen to this great book because of it, but I wanted to share because it's very unsettling and my unwavering belief that audible would never endorse such a copy kept me wondering where the sound was coming from and so I kept getting distracted from the material.

Excellent

One of the best books you will listen to. Seldom it is that I'm actually hearing anything new these days. Everything is rehashed like the tiring "marshmallow test". This book is a train of consciousness from a brilliant mind. There is a little background noise in a few spots. no biggie.