"At some point, it seems, the American intellectual fell in love with the idea of himself as the alien organism among bourgeois rubes." Bingo, Jonathan.
"Ms. Jacoby is quite right to reject the easy conclusion, reached by David Brooks and other smarmy conservatives, that the snobbery of highbrow leftist intellectuals ruined mainstream print culture for the rest of us." Oh really, why? Do you not agree? Cite your reasons. David Brooks can be spot on in some instances.
Now, I am still kind of at a loss as what to expect from this book from your review. Is it another one of those polemics that rails about how self-aware Europeans are, and how stupid Americans are? We both know that's BS.
Is it a diatribe on the state of academia? Hey, any chance we get to bash the ivory tower is good.
Is is a tome bashing our reliance on electronic media? Look, the average American doesn't read. And what they read is not Tolstoy, despite Oprah. Oprah books look good on your shelf, but ask how many of those women read the whole book. No, what Americans like today is US Weekly and People.
Anyway, I'll read the book, but I'm sure I won't like her conclusions.