Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us

Description

A timely exploration of intellectual dogmatism in politics, economics, religion, and literature-and what can be done to fight it Polarization may be pushing democracy to the breaking point. But few have explored the larger, interconnected forces that have set the stage for this crisis: namely, a rise in styles of thought, across a range of field

Gary Saul Morson is the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and professor of Slavic languages and literatures at Northwestern University. Morton Schapiro is the president of Northwestern University and a professor of economics. The authors of many books, Morson and Schapiro are also the coauthors of Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities (Princeton).

"A Behavioral Scientist's Notable Book" "A sweeping study of the rise of rigid certainty in politics, economics and literature, and the threat it presents to democracy, which requires open-mindedness and compromise."---Bill Clinton, The Guardian ""Morson and Schapiro are surely right to point out that in recent years we have... seen new fundamentalisms generate solidarity through distrust, disinformation and angry resentment. Their book reminds us that we need to aspire to create communities open to learning, to conversation and to recognizing one's own errors. That's what we want, after all, from our campuses and from our democracy." --Michael Roth, Wall Street Journal" "Their argument on the whole is compelling, and one can only hope society listens to it."---Nat Brown, National Review "Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro are professors at Northwestern University in such disparate fields as Slavic languages and literatures and Economics. The book is a seamless fusion of their learning, observation, analysis, and wisdom. They are experienced collaborators and we are their beneficiaries. ... Defending politics and democracy is difficult although preferable to the alternatives. The same applies to other fields vulnerable to fundamentalism. Moderation is not easy, and thinking is strenuous. However, minds wide shut hurt more. ... Minds Wide Shut ... is solemnly and enthusiastically recommended."---Linda Quest, International Social Science Review "Minds Wide Shut issues a devastating indictment of the ideological extremism so characteristic of fundamentalism." * Chronicles *