Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog
RECORD NUMBER: 14 OF 18Main Title | The assault on reason / | |||||||||||
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Author | Gore, Albert, | |||||||||||
Publisher | Penguin Books, | |||||||||||
Year Published | 2008 | |||||||||||
OCLC Number | 183266831 | |||||||||||
ISBN | 9780143113621 (pbk.); 0143113623 (pbk.); 1594201226; 9781594201226 | |||||||||||
Subjects | United States--Politics and government--2001- ; Political culture--United States ; Democracy--United States ; Reason--Social aspects--United States ; Reason--Political aspects--United States ; Fear--Political aspects--United States ; Official secrets--United States ; United States--Politics and government ; Democracy--United States ; Reason--Social aspects ; Reason--Political aspects ; Fear--Political aspects ; Secrecy | |||||||||||
Additional Subjects | Bush, George W--(George Walker),--1946- ; Bush, George W--(George Walker),--1946---Friends and associates ; Bush, George W--(George Walker),--1946- ; Bush, George W--(George Walker),--1946---Friends and associates | |||||||||||
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Collation | 308 p. ; 22 cm. | |||||||||||
Notes | Originally published: New York : Penguin Press, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. [277]-296) and index. |
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Contents Notes | Introduction -- 1: Politics of fear -- 2: Blinding the faithful -- 3: Politics of wealth -- 4: Convenient untruths -- 5: Assault on the individual -- 6: National insecurity -- 7: Carbon crisis -- 8: Democracy in the balance -- 9: Well-connected citizenry -- Conclusion: Rebirth of democracy -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index. From the Publisher: A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason. At the time George W. Bush ordered American forces to invade Iraq, 70 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11. Voters in Ohio, when asked by pollsters to list what stuck in their minds about the campaign, most frequently named two Bush television ads that played to fears of terrorism. We live in an age when the thirty-second television spot is the most powerful force shaping the electorate's thinking, and America is in the hands of an administration less interested than any previous administration in sharing the truth with the citizenry. Related to this and of even greater concern is this administration's disinterest in the process by which the truth is ascertained, the tenets of fact-based reasoning--first among them an embrace of open inquiry in which unexpected and even inconvenient facts can lead to unexpected conclusions. How did we get here? How much damage has been done to the functioning of our democracy and its role as steward of our security? Never has there been a worse time for us to lose the capacity to face the reality of our long-term challenges, from national security to the economy, from issues of health and social welfare to the environment. As The Assault on Reason shows us, we have precious little time to waste. Gore's larger goal in this book is to explain how the public sphere itself has evolved into a place hospitable to reason's enemies, to make us more aware of the forces at work on our own minds, and to lead us to an understanding of what we can do, individually and collectively, to restore the rule of reason and safeguard our future. Drawing on a life's work in politics as well as on the work of experts across a broad range of disciplines, Al Gore has written a farsighted and powerful manifesto for clear thinking. |