The state of elementary, intermediate and higher education in America has been a serious cause for concern in recent years. Diverse groups and individuals have issued scathing reports on the low quality of current educational schemes, dire warnings about their potential consequences, and mostly vague recommendations regarding their reform. Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, described on the New York Times best-seller list as 'a critique of liberal arts education during the past twenty-five years', has been widely considered as a distinguished part of this broad critical movement. Nothing could be further from the truth.

LRB 10 December 1987 | PDF Download