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Dumbing Down

Essays on the Strip-Mining of American Culture

John Simon editor John F Thornton editor Katharine Washburn editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:WW Norton & Co

Published:22nd Dec '97

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Dumbing Down cover

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.

"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

ISBN: 9780393317237

Dimensions: 234mm x 157mm x 25mm

Weight: 514g

332 pages