Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip-mining of American Culture

by Katharine Washburn (Editor), John F. Thornton (Editor), John Simon (Introduction)

New
Paperback
1997
$24.39

With vigor, wit, learning, common sense, and urgency, twenty-three essayist-including John Simon, Cynthia Ozick, Phillip Lopate, George F. Kennan, Sven Birkerts, Joseph Epstein, and Brad Leithauser-examine aspects of our pan-cultural dumbing down and offer both diagnoses of and possible cures for this wasting disease.

Synopsis

With vigor, wit, learning, common sense, and urgency, twenty-three essayist-including John Simon, Cynthia Ozick, Phillip Lopate, George F. Kennan, Sven Birkerts, Joseph Epstein, and Brad Leithauser-examine aspects of our pan-cultural "dumbing down" and offer both diagnoses of and possible cures for this wasting disease.

$24.39

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: New edition
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 22 Dec 1997
ISBN 10: 0393317234
ISBN 13: 9780393317237

Media Reviews

A collection of savagely witty essays by a hardy band of cultural commentators who believe things are bad, really bad out there, and are not at all reluctant to say so. -- Florence King - National Review
What distinguishes this collection is its breadth, its liveliness. This valuable book provides much ammunition for . . . unrepentant elitists. -- Lisa Zeidner - Philadelphia Inquirer
Provides the best picture we have of the declining and embarrassing condition of discourse in America. -- Neil Postman
A terrific book. It is unsettling, arresting, and compelling, and its publication is a public service. -- William J. Bennett

Author Bio

John Thornton was a book editor for many years and now works as a literary agent. He lives in New York. Katharine Washburn is an editor and translator. She lives in New York.