''America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats)'' is a 2012 book by David Gelernter, published by

Encounter Books Encounter Books is a book publisher in the United States known for publishing conservative authors. It was named for '' Encounter'', the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol and Stephen Spender. Based in New York City since 20 ...

. The term "America Lite" has also been used to jokingly refer to the country of Canada by Americans because of its proximity and cultural similarities to the United States.

Overview

In ''America-Lite'', Gelernter argues that the profound changes in American society, especially between the 1960s and the 1980s, can be explained by an earlier rise of an academic class quite different from those who dominated pre-War American universities, especially in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

. Gelernter views the changes in morality,

social norms A social norm is a shared standard of acceptance, acceptable behavior by a group. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into wikt:rule, rules and laws. Social norma ...

, and attitudes to

normativity Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A Norm (philosophy), norm in this sense means a standard for evaluatin ...

itself as principally an effect of these academics, recruited from the 1940s onwards, who selectively recruited colleagues sharing their world view, and taught this world view to their students. A confluence is seen in which acquiescence to academic expertise increases at the same time that core questions as

human nature Human nature comprises the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of Thought, thinking, feeling, and agency (philosophy), acting—that humans are said to have nature (philosophy), naturally. The term is often used to denote ...

, right and wrong,

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

equality Equality generally refers to the fact of being equal, of having the same value. In specific contexts, equality may refer to: Society * Egalitarianism, a trend of thought that favors equality for all people ** Political egalitarianism, in which ...

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

progress Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

etc. are questioned by these experts. The uniformity of this expert opinion, along with ignorance by students of alternatives, is then seen as a relatively straightforward cause of very significant changes in society, rules, laws, regulations, expectations, and attitudes that come to mirror this

post-modern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experi ...

world view.

Reception

It was reviewed in ''

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is an American newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals, including staff members and administrators. A subscription ...

'' in the article "Dreaming of a World With No Intellectuals",Russell Jacoby, (2012)
Dreaming of a World With No Intellectuals
''

''. in '' Commentary'' magazine in the article "Reign of Ignorance", In a ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

'' interview "Dismantling Culture", as well as in ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', which said the book's "historical account of American educational reform is intriguing," but faulted its author's "unapologetic partisanship" and use of "simplistic metaphors and propagandist catchphrases."Review
''

'', 18 June 2012 Stephen Daisley wrote in ''Commentary'' magazine that Gelernter portrays Obama's presidency as a symbol of the failure of American education and the success of its replacement with a liberal indoctrination system. As a solution, Gelernter proposes moving all of human knowledge to online servers so that the in-person college experience can be replaced by user-driven self-education. Daisley wrote, "''America-Lite'' is lean, incisive convincing, delightfully indelicate, and, in a break from the conventions of the literature on education, honest. It is a fine dissection— de-construction, if you must—of the corruption of higher education and the resulting debasement of political culture. If it makes its way on to a single college reading list, Hell will have frozen over." Russell Jacoby was sharply dismissive in his review of Gelernter's book. Among other criticisms he made, Jacoby said that Gelernter blamed intellectuals for causing the breakdown of patriotism and the traditional family but never explained how that came about.

References

{{reflist 2012 non-fiction books Encounter Books books Books critical of modern liberalism in the United States