This is not an easy book to read - or to review - but it is worth the effort. I have read and reread passages and still ponder some of the author's ideas. Mr Bosworth uses the term "idiot savant" to challenge some esteemed thinkers and ask if they are of value. I had no idea Henry Ford was such a character until I read the chapters here devoted to him. Some of his parties must have been fascinating even if they don't all show Ford in a great light looking back.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Harold Bloom as I have read many of his books of literary criticism. The thing I most liked about Mr Bosworth's analysis was that I came away reassured that I didn't have to beat myself up for not understanding all that Bloom writes. There is a lot of learning in here and many writers and intellectuals are named and quoted and I think I will be following up on some of the people and ideas in the months ahead. Recommended if you sometimes find yourself lost among "the greats" and want something reassuring but difficult that will make you think with every page.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

A valuable critique of American culture that is worth pondering!
It is an enriching book with refined, lucid, sharp and cultivated prose, the author expresses in a very critical way his position regarding the supposed rational capacity and our technological civilization based on scientific thought, but that is far from the sanity, so that we create artifacts that threaten us and destroy nature, and also makes us virtual slaves.
Through 3 emblematic personalities, David Bosworth tells us that being brilliant is not necessarily grounded in wisdom; provokes us and invites us to return to a more ethical, aesthetic and humanistic way, which is very necessary and urgent in our times; explains the reasons for our modern and postmodern thinking that have resulted in the existential vacuum and American social dissatisfaction in all spheres of human doing. In addition he proposes, in his way of seeing, a scheme of how we could solve ourselves, through a cultural progress that proceeds through transcendental integration (arts, science, economics, ethics and humanism) and not extermination.
These kinds of criticisms are very necessary at a time when we need to move into new paradigms; Which help us break with outdated thinking systems that hinder progress towards more holistic approaches.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book.