NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic
comes an impassioned critique of America's retreat from reason
We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and
discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy
theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up
for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the
crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging
to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.
How did truth become an endangered species in contemporary America? This
decline began decades ago, and in The Death of Truth, former New York
Times critic Michiko Kakutani takes a penetrating look at the cultural
forces that contributed to this gathering storm. In social media and
literature, television, academia, and politics, Kakutani identifies the
trends--originating on both the right and the left--that have combined
to elevate subjectivity over factuality, science, and common values. And
she returns us to the words of the great critics of authoritarianism,
writers like George Orwell and Hannah Arendt, whose work is newly and
eerily relevant.
With remarkable erudition and insight, Kakutani offers a provocative
diagnosis of our current condition and points toward a new path for our
truth-challenged times.
