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Start giftingThe Closing of the American Mind
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Learn moreMore 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.
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. The author of three books of poems and several books of criticism and biography, Kirsch lives in New York City.
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
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
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