The Death of Expertise - Tom Nichols

This title of this book is, as the author initially states, pretentious and self important.  But it makes a lot of sense to me.  The basic concept of the book is that Americans are arrogantly proud of their ignorance.  Nichols says that we have gone from an intelligent society, to an ignorant society, to a arrogantly incorrect society.  I believe this book was heavily influenced by the 2016 U.S. Presidential elections.

I haven't done any fact checking (ha - the moral of this book), but if he says that people don't regard expert advise because of the college system and the media, it makes some sense to me.

I see ignorance proliferate even in my workplace, with people that have college and advanced degrees.  It's disheartening to know that even intelligent informed opinions elude some of the most educated people.

I think what Nichols fails to examine is the lack of emotional or interpersonal or intrapersonal intelligence, as described by Daniel Goleman or Howard Gardner.  I believe that this is a factor that makes certain people arrogantly incorrect.

Regardless, I think this is a good book that attempts to explain why American society is uninformed and doesn't care, and a wake-up call to Americans to think more critically.  Unfortunately, I'm sure most of the readers of the book are the choir being preached to.