This books is an excellent survey of anti-intellectualism in America. Jacoby traces the roots of this aspect of American culture and illustrates how it continues to be perpetuated. It is especially frightening that ignorance, illogic and emotionalism have managed to be elevated to virtues in popular culture. Effective self-governance in a democracy depends on an educated population capable of making logical decisions based on dispassionate evaluations of evidence, so the anti-rational trends Jacoby describes threaten the basic foundations of the country.