CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND

Rating:
Summary: An excellent command of political and social philosophy
Review: Prof. Bloom is obviously a very perceptive and intelligent writer, as his books shows. I have read _Closing_ three times, and each time have been astounded by the command he holds of such philosophers as Plato, Nietzsche, Hegel, et al.

This book, besides its analysis of the current crisis in Western liberal education, also serves as an excellent introduction to the great Western philosophers. Anyone who finds _Closing_ thought-provoking and interesting should pick up the two great critics of the Enlightenment tradition, Rousseau and Nietzsche. I have read several works by both philosophers, and never failed to be bored by either.

I will be attending Queen's University (in Kingston, Canada) next fall as a Humanities major. Thanks to such writers as Prof. Bloom, I now know what to expect while pursuing my study of history. _Closing_ is a book that I hope to read and re-read in the years to come.

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Summary: Bloom was Alternative?
Review: I found the book to be quite interesting but somewhat lacking on the elements fundamental to Plato's early principals. If you're not familiar with Bloom, he was openly gay at the University of Chicago for many years. That is only mentioned in the new book Revelstein, but is fascinating considering Bloom's high moral standings and role as preacher/author yet simultaneously held as degenerate by his homosexual behaviour. Quite a contrast, yet society can sort it out. In the end, Bloom can still be a role model for the Christian and Ethical Realm.

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Summary: What does he think he's thinking...?
Review: Bought this book when it came out and read it cover to cover. Fascinating pile of information, but never did figure out what it was that Bloom thought he wanted to say (except that Brecht and 'Mack' are downright unAmerican--the Augsburger pseudo-patricii don't like Brecht either, so maybe Bloom ought to try A-burg! Good bakeries and butchers there, anyway!). Read the book cover-to-cover 5 more times (dated it insside the cover every time I read it)--that's how fascinating the book is. STILL never did find out what Bloom thought he wanted to say! Don't think I'll read it again.Bored with trying.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: Nearly all of us Americans say that we believe in liberty and equality. But how many of us would be able to defend these beliefs against an attack by a really intelligent anti-egalitarian such as Nietzsche? Our regime was founded on the idea that reason, not religion or brute force, should rule. It was not always obvious that such a regime was either good or possible, and arguments had to be made to convince people to support its creation. The Enlightenment philosophers provided those arguments. As Bloom notes, the Enlightenment brought the philosopher (i.e., reason) and the regime into harmony as they never had been before. (Socrates, the archetypical philosopher, had of course been executed for impiety.) Rousseau, while agreeing with the the fundamental Enlightenment idea of equality, argued forcefully that reason alone could not found and sustain a society, and in the process invented the modern idea of the bourgeois, the product of the reason-based society, hatred of which was an important element of both Marxism and fascism. But it was Nietzsche who provided the really devastating attack, arguing that listening to our heads rather than our hearts had killed what was really worthwhile in us, that we need to stop reasoning and start coming up with new "values."

The middle chapters of the book are the best overview of political philosophy that I have come across. Bloom understands Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Nietzsche as I believe they would have wanted to be understood. Especially Nietzsche, whose ideas are described with the utmost respect, even though it is implicit that if we are to keep our regime we ultimately must reject those ideas. The sections on "Values" and "Culture," which describe how some German ideas with a great deal of nobility in them mutated when they got to America, are riveting.

Bloom can see that our regime, even as it prospers economically, is in crisis. We Americans mouth the words of Jefferson, but really believe Nietzsche. We do not believe in the primacy of reason. Equality and liberty are nothing more than prejudices for most of us. They are merely "values," and if pressed, most of us would not be able to explain why we like those values better than other ones. Regimes decay for a variety of reasons, one of which is internal contradiction, as in the fall of the Soviet Union. The American regime, with its emphasis on human rights, liberty and equality, is based on the primacy of reason. If most Americans do not now believe in the primacy of reason, then our regime has an internal contradiction. I take Bloom to be saying that this contradiction has come about because those in a position to educate the rest of us have failed to do so. That is where the opening and closing sections on young people and university education come in. Those sections are interesting (and obviously near and dear to Bloom's heart) even if not as informative as the middle chapters, and, even if the section on music is flawed as some other readers have pointed out, they provide concrete examples and describe consequences of the intellectual crisis.

"The Closing of the American Mind" is at the top of my all-time non-fiction list. To me, Bloom is as interesting to read as the thinkers whose thought he describes so well. I believe that in a few years his masterpiece will be seen as a classic of democratic political thought.

Rating:
Summary: To open a mind
Review: A thoughtful and penetrating book, Prof. Bloom dissects Academia and finds the virus that has infected it in the form of relativism, multiculturalism and the other poisonous "isms" that plague the unfortunate mind of the American college student today. Only one thing can be said of a man of such learned insight: Genius!

I had no idea of the deficiency in my education until I read Bloom's revelation. As a student, I thought Cornel West, Henry Gates, and Noam Chomsky were the modern day Socrates, Plato, and Shakespeare. Of course, an erroneous thought. . . but as it turns out, they have replaced these great men of ideas. Thoughts of the good, virtue, and the quest for truth were sacrificed for social agenda, self-serving, liberal thoughts on so-called social justice and the imperative of racial discrimination to make up for racial discrimination! Bloom calls these things for what the are and makes the reader aware of the true crisis we are in. Perhaps no one, other than Irving Kristol, has had such a keen insight into the problems of our nation, particularly its' future.

If Prof. Bloom could read this now, I would just like to say thank you sir; thank you for turning a naive, social agenda swallowing American student into a neo-conservative thinking one. Your text has changed a life--by opening a mind.

Rating:
Summary: A Seminal Book For Our Times
Review: Professor Bloom's account of our crisis is on the mark, although it can be tainted at times with a frankness that will offend some who cling to pop 'culture' for their salvation. However one feels about some of Bloom's analysis, especially in Part One, it must be remembered that his intention seems not to be a demagogue but to shake up sensibilities that have grown stale and deaf. The furious reaction to this book suggests he has done just that, and by attacking what many hold dear forces a re-thinking of where and how we take our bearings. The book should be read carefully from start to finish, as many have accused Professor Bloom of being everything from a staunch conservative to a Bible-thumper. Bloom is neither-nor is he a liberal in our current sense. He is attempting to trace an intellectual history as it affects the university, which he compellingly argues is at the center of our nation, a nation founded on reason and Enlightenment principles. The abandonment of these principles for a system of thought that was hostile to us is indeed a theoretical issue that requires pursuing. Lastly, for those who argue that because Leo Strauss was German and one of Bloom's mentors this makes for hypocrisy, they should read Strauss' works with more clarity. If Bloom can be accused of anything, it is staying true to Strauss' vision of political science, which rejected German irrationalism. The book will not give answers, but will point one to the reading list that may. An excellent work, and one that will grow in importance with time.

Rating:
Summary: I want to party with the reader from nowhere!
Review: I gave this book 5 stars, though I don't agree with some of it, because it was written from the heart. Here is a sincere, if biased, search for the truth. The reader from nowhere (below) is a gas, I'd love to party with him while reading 'The Waste Land'...but he's wrong about our horribly repressive culture, in fact just the opposite is true. Also, Western Civilization isn't dead...it's just in a coma. Trust me, the rest of the world has nothing to offer. I've been there.

Rating:
Summary: A must read, but you must read it critically
Review: Bloom was a true conservative, and probably this book is the best apology for his cause there is. As such it should be read.

Bloom's attacks on pop relativism and the emptiness of pop culture are on the mark, and his analysis of the history of our "sickness" is insightful. His prose is very muscular and powerful.

However, he is just another despairing intellectual. This is not the answer. Hopefully this book will not turn you into someone who swoons over the poetry of T.S. Elliot.

Western Civilization is over, as is christendom. Deal with it. There is no reason to defend tooth and nail such a horribly repressive culture. I agree that there is much we can learn from it, but there is no reason to wish it back.

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Summary: criticizing relativism he failed miserably at being objectiv
Review: This is one of the neo-conservative jesus-thumping guys that gives some really good books a bad name.

Alan Bloom is so indignant about how americans are stepping on his tradition (which really isn't his at all) ---yet he gives as a solution reading some of the most eloquent speakers against tradition (at least of their times) in recorded history. Mr. Bloom, reading about Socrates will _not_ clue americans in to what you see as eternal verities----if anything, it will cause them to question your truths more. In trying to be fair(which is good!), we have indeed been a little unfair to some of the most beautiful, insightful, *still-contemporary* works produced by the human mind. But unfortunately, Bloom's shoddy, personal-grudge-filled, historically inaccurate (see Oakley's _Community of Learning), and rather often blatantly illogical defense will only serve to confuse the issue, and pull the education debate into lost tangents, away from what really matters: what (all) books actually have to say, and how they are important to us in answering the questions raised by ourselves and this universe.

I would ask you to please, please not judge 'great books' (or great books programs) because of such a blowhard.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat easy to read
Review: Although I did not like his basic idea and found it truly American conservative, his writing was very easy to read through.

Please read Nietzsche and French modern philosopher's works afterwards.