For the past several decades, America has propelled itself into a cruel state of mass unreason. In While Reason Slept, Brier elegantly traces the history of America back to its founding principles, showing in no uncertain terms that the world as an idea of reason is not merely a fool's fable; it is a practical imperative.
Beginning in the early twentieth century, however, America slowly began to shift away from a country of rational citizens and toward a country of irrational consumers. Brier persuasively contends that America's irrational transformation has its origins in the work of Edward Bernays, the forefather of modern propaganda (the "engineering of consent," as he called it) whose Freudian tactics of manipulation have been misappropriated and expounded upon by every major influencer of the past century, from the Third Reich to Ronald Reagan to Facebook. But after diagnosing the principal causes underlying America's irrational state of affairs, Brier offers an optimistic solution for recapturing the Founders' vision of a rational Republic.
If you are a citizen who hungers for reality; if you would rather travel the arduous path of justice than the reassuring path of comfort; if you would rather suffer agony in the quest for peace than sit with ease in the shadow of the cave—then this book is for you.
About the Authors:
Thomas F. Brier, Jr., is a native of Hershey, Pennsylvania. He attended Dickinson College, where he played basketball, fell in love with The Wire, and graduated with a degree in Philosophy. He earned his Juris Doctor in 2017 from Penn State Law, where he was elected commencement speaker by his classmates. After graduation, he served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before joining an international law firm in Philadelphia. He is currently running for Congress as a Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District.
