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 fields, that literary scholar Gary Saul Morson and economist Morton Schapiro call “fundamentalist.” In Minds Wide Shut, Morson and Schapiro examine how rigid adherence to ideological thinking has altered politics, economics, religion, and literature in ways that are mutually reinforcing and antithetical to the open-mindedness and readiness to compromise that animate democracy. In response, they propose alternatives that would again make serious dialogue possible. Fundamentalist thinking, Morson and Schapiro argue, is not limited to any one camp. It flourishes across the political spectrum, giving rise to dueling monologues of shouting and abuse between those who are certain that they can’t be wrong, that truth and justice are all on their side, and that there is nothing to learn from their opponents, who must be evil or deluded. But things don’t have to be this way. Drawing on thinkers and writers from across the humanities and social sciences, Morson and Schapiro show how we might begin to return to meaningful dialogue through case-based reasoning, objective analyses, lessons drawn from literature, and more. The result is a powerful invitation to leave behind simplification, rigidity, and extremism—and to move toward a future of greater open-mindedness, moderation, and, perhaps, even wisdom.

Book Delisted

A brilliant, head-spinning exploration of today's cutting-edge brain research, "Mind Wide Open" is an unprecedented exploration of the nature of the self, compelling readers to rethink the essence of human personality and individual fate.

The book is based on life experiences. Growing up, school, U.S Army service, Police duty, and Christian living. I took my own life and reflected while writing, but all the instances are not in order as they occurred.

Twenty years since its release, Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut remains a complex, visually arresting film about domesticity, sexual disturbance, and dreams. It was on the director's mind for some 50 years before he finally put it into production. Using the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts, London, and interviews with participants in the production, the authors create an archeology of the film that traces the progress of the film from its origins to its completion, reception, and afterlife. The book is also an appreciation of this enigmatic work and its equally enigmatic creator.

Curriculum Windows: What Curriculum Theorists of the 1970s Can Teach Us about Schools and Society Today is an effort by students of curriculum studies, along with their professor, to interpret and understand curriculum texts and theorists of the 1970s in contemporary terms. The authors explore how key books/authors from the curriculum field of the 1970s illuminate new possibilities forward for us as scholar educators today: How might the theories, practices, and ideas wrapped up in curriculum texts of the 1970s still resonate with us, allow us to see backward in time and forward in time – all at the same time? How might these figurative windows of insight, thought, ideas, fantasy, and fancy make us think differently about curriculum, teaching, learning, students, education, leadership, and schools? Further, how might they help us see more clearly, even perhaps put us on a path to correct the mistakes and missteps of intervening decades and of today? The chapter authors and editor revisit and interpret several of the most important works of the 1970s by Norman Overly, Michael Apple, Eliot Eisner, John Goodlad, Louise Berman, William Reid, Bill Pinar, Daniel Tanner, Laurel Tanner, Maxine Greene, James MacDonald, and Joseph Schwab. The book's Foreword is by renowned curriculum theorist William H. Schubert.

In Movies with Stanley Cavell in Mind, some of the scholars who have become essential for our understanding of Stanley Cavell's writing on film gather to use his landmark contributions to help us read new films-from Hollywood and elsewhere-that exist beyond his immediate reach and reading. In extending the scope of Cavell's film philosophy, we naturally find ourselves contending with it and amending it, as the case may be. Through a series of interpretive vignettes, the group effort situates, for the expert and novitiate alike, how Cavell's writing on film can profitably enrich one's experience of cinema generally and also inform how we might continue the practice of serious philosophical criticism of specific films mindful of his sensibility. The resulting conversations between texts, traditions, disciplines, genres, and generations creates propitious conditions for discovering what it means to watch and listen to movies with Stanley Cavell in mind.

This book provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the interdisciplinary field of literature and economics.

This book is a “journey book.” Sitting down at a computer and producing the story has been a grand trek. I have learned that there is a principle in nature that some things need to mellow, calm down, and soak in. The refusal of winemakers to take a wine before its time is a notion I am coming to understand. It works with writers as well. Like a fetus signaling its mother that it is time to head for the hospital, a literary work stays in the mind until its time. In my education, I have read of the battles of great Church leaders who were eventually thrown out of their churches. In my denominational education, I was largely led to see them as heretics, rebels, eccentrics, revolutionaries, apostates, and as generally representing a lower form of spirituality. Church education often asked me to surrender my biases in favor of accepting a new set of assumptions—my denominational ones. We were to be critical of everything except our organization. I submit that there is danger in that. This book will cover incidents from the first forty years of my life as a religious addict. You may find something here that you can identify with.

Have you heard rumors about the mysterious deaths in Disneyland? Or that occult ritual magic is behind the appearance of UFO's? Was mind control the hidden trigger that blew JFK away? Is Tuesday Weld a high priestess of the Bavarian Illuminati? These and many other strange spectres inhabit the pages of The Beast of Adam Gorightly: Collected Rantings 1992-2004. Mr. Gorightly, a certified 'crackpot historian' and 33rd degree Mason, has over the last decade chronicled such unwieldy subjects in his many articles and books. The Beast of Adam Gorightly is the culmination of these arcane journeys into the hinterlands of high weirdness, delving into the darkness, and unraveling the mummy folds that await his readers there. Proceed at your own possible ruin!