Explains how Americans' cultural forgetfulness is eating away at America's soul.
According to Bertman, just as an individual needs memories to maintain a sense of personal identity, so does a nation need them in order to survive. Like Alzheimer victims, however, today's Americans are rapidly losing a consciousness of history, and with it, a sense of national identity and direction.
Sixty percent of adult Americans don't know the name of the president who ordered the dropping of the first atomic bomb, 42% of college seniors can't place the Civil War in the right half-century, and 24% think Columbus discovered America in the 1500s. Meanwhile, more American teenagers can name the Three Stooges than the three branches of the federal government.
Applying the metaphor of Alzheimer's disease to our national state of mind, Bertman offers a chilling prognosis for our country's future unless radical steps for recovery are taken. He offers psychological insights into the nature of memory with perspectives on the meaning and future of democracy. With compelling evidence, the book demonstrates that cultural amnesia, like Alzheimer's disease, is an insidiously progressive and debilitating illness that is eating away at America's soul. Rather than superficially blaming memory loss on a failed educational system, Bertman looks beyond the classroom to the larger social forces that conspire to alienate Americans from their past: a materialistic creed that celebrates transience and disposability, and an electronic faith that worships the present to the exclusion of all other dimensions of time.
Prologue
Cultural Amnesia
Memory and Personal Identity
Memory and Civilization
The Power of Oblivion
Why America Forgot
National Therapy
Home Remedies
A Nation of Amnesiacs
Epilogue
Index
Endorsements
Stephen Bertman's ^ICultural Amnesia^R is an important book. It should make everyone think seriously about how we transmit the ideas, the history, and the civic values that allow us to function as a nation and a community and about the consequences of failing to do so.—Diane Ravitch^LResearch Professor in Education^LNew York University
This eloquent plea for enriching our present by refusing to relinquish our past should be read by everyone engaged in the educating of the young--teachers, planners of curriculum, parents, and all those who care about the future of the Western tradition, its laws, its literature, and all the elements of the arts and culture that form our civilization's history.—Rita Kramer^LAuthor of ^IEd School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers^R
How can one book be depressing but inspiring, scholarly but readable, thoroughly researched but gripping and also make your both proud and embarrassed to be an American? ^ICultural Amnesia: America's Futurue and the Crisis of Memory^R does this and more.—Richard D. Lamm^LGovernor of Colorado^L1975-1987
Bertman pleads for more memory in our national life and for classic ways of remembering. He argues passionately and well: it is time to listen.—John Kotre^LAuthor of ^IWhite Gloves: How We Create Ourselves Through Memory^R
Stephen Bertman's ^ICultural Amnesia^R provides a penetrating and accurate analysis of America's unconsidered and fateful rejection of its national heritage. Citizens uneasy about the condition and the future of their society will benefit greatly from the sharply drawn and original perspective presented in this small volume.—John Howard^LSenior Fellow^LThe Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society
Stephen Bertman's book is a provocative reminder that the dumbing of America is connected to our longer-term loss of a set of historical memories. Only by critically recovering our past can we--a nation of amnesiacs--build a new promise of American life, defined in both spiritual and material terms.—Bruno V. Manno^LSenior Fellow in Education^LThe Annie E. Casey Foundation
Students are not dumber, they just achieve at lower levels--according to our own earlier and international standards. The problem is that those who are in charge and created this mess are also in denial.—Donald P. Hayes^LProfessor of Sociology^LCornell University
