Book cover of The Assault on American Excellence

Book description

"I want to call it a cry of the heart, but it's more like a cry of the brain, a calm and erudite one." -Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal

The former dean of Yale Law School argues that the feverish egalitarianism gripping college campuses today is a threat to…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Assault on American Excellence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kronman is particularly good at describing the “tough” reasoning skills that underlie the thinking styles that have produced modern science and modern democracies. An example of these tough skills is what he calls the “ethic of depersonalization”: expressing arguments in a form available to all—a form not dependent on our emotions or personal experience. Identity politics, in contrast, gives weight to immutable demographic characteristics in ongoing political conversations.  It thus reverses centuries of progress in the intellectual march toward open, ecumenical inquiry, where personal characteristics do not trump rational argument.

If you love The Assault on American Excellence...

Ad

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like The Assault on American Excellence?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Assault on American Excellence.

Browse books like The Assault on American Excellence

Book cover of The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Book cover of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics
Book cover of The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, the Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,277

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Assault on American Excellence, you might also like...

Book cover of The Bridge: Connecting The Powers of Linear and Circular Thinking

The Bridge by Kim Hudson,

The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…

Book cover of And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown

And Then They Were Gone by Ron Cabral,

Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.

The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…

5 book lists we think you will like!