The problem with expertise — and the dark side of the equation ‘knowledge = power.’

Accolades

Named to the “Best Books of 2025” by The New Yorker

“Russell and Patterson gleefully puncture many of the beliefs, institutions, and leading lights in liberal thinking who ‘dismiss their critics without engaging them.’” - Undark

“A very important and topical book” - Paradigm Explorer

More reviews on the Writing & Media page

Advance Praise for Weaponization of Expertise

“Expertise is essential to progress, but as Russell and Patterson clearly document, it is too often weaponized today to suppress healthy skepticism and dissent despite both being required in the search for truth within and outside the academy.”
—Jeffrey S. Flier, Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine, and Former Dean, Harvard Medical School

“Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson’s new book could not be a more relevant book for this moment. Russell and Patterson deliver an unflinching look at the Oz-like nature of many of today’s experts along with a wonderful recounting of why skepticism in all its forms has been a valued trait throughout history. And they offer a possible path for how to be a thoughtful human in today’s world.”
—Bethany McLean, bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron and The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind.

“Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson make a convincing case for why elites, experts, and merchants of overconfidence fail so often and so majestically. Admonitions to follow the science and put trust in spurious, conflicted, and overconfident expertise may be at odds with serious science and rational decision-making.”
—John P. A. Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University