Opinion

THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE

With “The Age of American Unreason,” Susan Jacoby has really written two different books on two occasionally overlapping subjects. The first book is a well-argued jeremiad against anti-intellectualism in America. The second, woven into the first, is a harsh and sometimes unfair condemnation of “fundamentalist” Christianity. The first book is one that needed to be written and Jacoby, whose previous book celebrated freethinkers throughout history, is as capable a judge as any to condemn the accused. Unfortunately, the second book serves as a major distraction.

Jacoby sets out to demonstrate that this nation was founded by men of tremendous intellectual curiosity who understood that the key to creating a great republic was a well-educated citizenry. Even then, though, anti-intellectual forces conspired against us. Jacoby argues that by the early-19th century “fundamentalism” was already driving a wedge between religion and intelligence and obsessive localism had begun to stymie efforts to establish a system of national education standards financed through general taxation.

Moreover, regional characteristics began to emerge in starker contrast than during the Revolutionary period. Henceforth, the South – where fundamentalism and localism became the culture itself – would no longer produce such men as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Still, our first full century as a nation was one of significant cultural advancement. Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville and others established an American cannon of truly great literature. The lyceum movement fostered community-wide discussion in the Northeast on subjects ranging from philosophy to anthropology. And many Americans were just as curious as the rest of civilization about the scientific and archeological discoveries that would radically change our understanding of life on earth.

The 20th century is another story. But for a tip of her hat to middlebrow culture of the aspirational class of the late-1940s and 1950s, Jacoby has nary a positive thing to say about “America’s Century.” And even middlebrow culture, which admirably sought to emulate highbrow culture at its advent, would soon be dumbed down by technology, especially the television.

The balance of the book – the first book, that is; we’ll get to the second book in a moment – details how youth culture, celebrity culture, “junk thought” (the most compelling chapter of the book), “infotainment” and, yes, video games contribute to anti-intellectualism in America. Throughout these pages, Jacoby’s aim is mostly true, though her occasional ax grinding diminishes the strength of her arguments a bit.

In the end, Jacoby concludes that she and other “cultural conservationists” can only “act in hope” that Americans will rediscover their intellectual roots, based in the Enlightenment, by turning off their televisions and computers, picking up a good book and, most of all, giving up on their stubborn superstitions.

Which brings us to book number two. In every chapter, Jacoby blames religious “fundamentalists” for contributing to anti-intellectualism in America. And yet she leaves the reader with the impression that she has no real understanding of the significant theological distinctions between the Christianity of the Second Great Awakening, the revivalists, the fundamentalist movement and evangelicals today.

Fundamentalism was but one manifestation of many mass Christian movements. The worldview of the fundamentalists was distinct, in ways subtle and significant, from those of other Christian movements throughout American history. If the author had indicated that she understands those distinctions and had she condensed these arguments to a chapter or two, she would have greatly strengthened her case. As it stands however, her generalized arguments read like sprinkled insults against a generic army of pious dullards.

Patrick Hynes is the author of “In Defense of the Religious Right” (Nelson Current).

The Age of American Unreason

by Susan Jacoby

Pantheon