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Article: CHRISTMAS 1987
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- December 8, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1987 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The two biggest surprises of 1987, Allan Bloom's "The Closing of
the American Mind" and E. D. Hirsch's "Cultural Literacy," were the
Clif and Claf of academic revanchism. Bloom lacked Hirsch's Trivial
Pursuit gimmickry (a list of 4,500 things "Every American Needs to
Know"); but he outperformed Hirsch on the best-seller list. Still,
it had to be the least- read No. 1 seller since "The Name of the
Rose" or "August 1914." Yes, everyone read the part about Mick
Jagger; but the Nietzsche, the Heidegger. . .?
What is now the 8th Congressional District could lay claim to
Doris Kearns Goodwin's "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys" and
Thomas P. O'Neill Jr.'s "Man of the House." Peter Wright's ...