The Closing of the American Mind
Book by Allan BloomWikipedia
24
MENTIONS
7
EPISODES
7
PODCASTS
Search complete. 24 mentions across 7 episodes found for "The Closing of the American Mind".
Oct 15, 2026
Francis FukuyamaGUEST
Yeah, well, ultimately, I think it would have to come from a restoration of liberal education in universities.
Francis FukuyamaGUEST
I was a student of Alan Bloom, who back in the late 1980s published this bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind.
Francis FukuyamaGUEST
You know, and there was a kind of progressive attack on liberal education as being overly Eurocentric and conservative.
Francis FukuyamaGUEST
you know, too dominated by dead white men.
Joshua KleinfeldHOST
And what happened? A phalanx of Federalist Society lawyers and others on the right attacked the administration for doing anything other than just whining and complaining.
Joshua KleinfeldHOST
They were perfectly comfortable with the whining and complaining that had been going on since Alan Bloom published Closing of the American Mind in 1986 or 87 or whatever it was when I was just like tiny.
Joshua KleinfeldHOST
But they wouldn't.
Joshua KleinfeldHOST
When finally a Republican administration was doing something, who was in the opposition? This whole phalanx of so-called conservatives.
Charlie HardingHOST
And you know, at a certain point in the history of rock and roll, there are critics who say that, you know, rock music has, uh, not only deteriorated, but that it is rotting people's minds.
Charlie HardingHOST
Uh, the critic Allan Bloom in 1987, in The Closing of the American Mind, says that, "Rock music has one appeal only, a barbaric appeal to sexual desire."
Nate SloanHOST
Ha.
Charlie HardingHOST
"Not love, not eros, but sexual desire, undeveloped and untortured.
Michael KnowlesHOST
It's just like, you know, I used to like chocolate, now I like vanilla.
Michael KnowlesHOST
You know? So anyway, we're gonna destroy our children's lives [laughs] and pr- and actually really immiserate our own lives, and it's gonna totally suck, but, you know, isn't that just life? Love wins." It reminds me of this line from Allan Bloom, uh, in, in "The Closing of the American Mind," great book.
Michael KnowlesHOST
He's writing about students.
Michael KnowlesHOST
He's writing about the university.
Brad WilcoxGUEST
Right.
BrianHOST
The Closing of the American Mind.
BrianHOST
The, the closing of the American heart, uh, just unpack that a little bit.
BrianHOST
I think you're-
Grant VenerableGUEST
Um, Representative Stefanik's, uh, withering questioning of presidents of prominent colleges during a current- uh, congressional hearing on antisemitism, mind you, remember that word, antisemitism, uh, became a flashpoint in the national debate over campus speech, free speech.
Grant VenerableGUEST
Then the New York Republican wrote a book about it.
Jill NicoliniHOST
Ah.
Grant VenerableGUEST
Her book, In Poisoned Ivies.
Grant VenerableGUEST
Isn't that a nice, delicious, provocative title? Uh, published earlier this year.
Grant VenerableGUEST
She decries the academic rot, R-O-T, at prestigious institutions like Columbia and Harvard Universities and the University of Pennsylvania, but she also was confronting the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT.
9 MINS LATER
Grant VenerableGUEST
Historically, observers of higher ed have been particularly focused on its most exclusive realms.
Grant VenerableGUEST
That's especially true for the sector's critics.
TonyHOST
In many ways, this was a movement that was like a back to the Bible movement.
TonyHOST
It was a movement that had many good intentions to seek to actually elevate the role of scripture in the life of the church and society, to bring it to a place of primacy and authority, and to say, "This is the book.
TonyHOST
This, this is the source that we find life." And specifically the teaching of it, right? 100%.
TonyHOST
Yeah.
TonyHOST
Um, and we've been talking, we've been engaging in a conversation between the two of us-
Sundar KrishnanGUEST
Right
TonyHOST
... and hopefully all of you, as we've been talking about the Bible, about this book that we know means so much for our faith, um, and what it looks like, though, for us to engage with this book in-
Sundar KrishnanGUEST
Yeah