The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom
The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom
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The Closing of the American Mind

Author: Allan Bloom

Narrator: Christopher Hurt

Unabridged: 12 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 01/05/2011


Synopsis

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.

About Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom (1930-1992) was a professor of social thought at the University of Chicago. He was the author of many books, including the number one bestseller The Closing of the American Mind. Adam Kirsch is a poet, critic, and an editor of the Wall Street Journal’s weekend review section. His work appears regularly in the New York Review of Books, New Yorker, Tablet, and other publications. He is the author of three books of poems and several books of criticism and biography.

About Christopher Hurt

Christopher Hurt is an accomplished narrator with a lengthy résumé of popular titles for Blackstone. A graduate of George Washington University’s acting program, he currently resides in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by W. on August 03, 2013

Perhaps this book deserves five stars -- it did, after all, shake me up a bit, the way the best books do. Bloom is rightly concerned with a problem I see in my own classrooms: the assumption that, since all views are to be tolerated in our modern liberal democracy, all views are equally valuable; fu......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on March 28, 2021

This is the best argument for conservatism I've ever read. To be fair, it's also the only one I've ever read, outside of the occasional David Brooks column. And let's be honest: Bloom is about as elitist and conservative as you can get. But he makes the position seem very enticing with his brilliant......more

Goodreads review by Valeriu on May 07, 2023

Autorul spune lucruri de bun simț, care merită să fie discutate. Tonul arțăgos îl face antipatic. Diatriba lui Allan Bloom a iscat o adevărată „furtună” în mediul academic american. Cartea s-a publicat în 1987, dar polemica a continuat cu înverșunare mai bine de un deceniu. Ce a reproșat Bloom pedago......more

Goodreads review by Scott on August 19, 2023

I was in eighth grade when the late Allan Bloom's 1987 seminal classic "The Closing of the American Mind" was published. I remembered it because my parents, like thousands of other parents across the country, bought it and put it on the bookshelf proudly. And there it sat, unread, for almost two dec......more

Goodreads review by robin on December 15, 2024

Education, Democracy, And Soul The late Allan Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" was an unexpected bestseller when it appeared in 1987. It is an outstanding work combining polemic against the diminution of American standards with serious thought about how we came to this impasse. Bloom's book......more


Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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


Awards

  • #1 New York Times Bestseller
  • National Review’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Century