Dumbing Down

With vigor, wit, learning, common sense, and urgency, twenty-three essayist?ncluding John Simon, Cynthia Ozick, Phillip Lopate, George F. Kennan, Sven Birkerts, Joseph Epstein, and Brad Leithauser?xamine aspects of our pan-cultural "dumbing down" and offer both diagnoses of and possible cures for this wasting disease.