Review on WEAPONIZATION OF EXPERTISE

Inquisitive Review: Just the Facts

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In Inquisitive, the quarterly magazine of Heterodox Academy, Thomas S. Huddle reviews The Weaponization of Expertise:

Popular skepticism of establishment orthodoxy and expert opinion, far from being a sign of ignorance or anti-intellectualism, is often warranted and sometimes closer to reality than what is being put forth by the experts. And the experts, rather than carefully and impartially bringing their expertise to policymaking, often disguise nakedly political judgments as expertise.

Still, their broader indictment of elites for supposing that expertise can settle what are actually political disputes is persuasive—even though there are many who will not be persuaded.

La Presse Essay: Should we make fun of conspiracy theorists?

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

La Presse, the Montreal-based Canadian newspaper, features The Weaponization of Expertise in an essay on conspiracy theories:

Contrary to this mockery, Russell and Patterson call for a sincere dialogue that could lead to much-needed reconciliation. Liberal democracy is not based on the infallibility of experts, but on everyone’s ability to be heard—even when they are wrong.

(translated from the original French)

Read the full essay (in French).

Undark Book Review: The Trouble With Depending on Experts

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Writing in Undark, a magazine exploring the intersection of science and society, Frieda Klotz reviews The Weaponization of Expertise:

Russell and Patterson, two law professors at Rutgers University, elucidate the many other ways in which they believe expertise has gone awry. …[W]hile the government’s response to the pandemic forms the backdrop to their thesis, Russell and Patterson want to make a broader point: experts have misused their authority, deployed their credentials to suppress dissent, and fed a public distrust that has backfired and led to populism.

The New Yorker Best Books of the Week

Mon, 26 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The New Yorker named The Weaponization of Expertise to its “Best Books We Read This Week” list, calling it a “persuasive account of how “tentative conclusions proclaimed by the powerful can harden into orthodoxies.”

In The New Yorker’s May 26, 2025 issue, Daniel Immerwahr reviews The Weaponization of Expertise in an essay:

“For liberals, veneration of expertise became a shibboleth… There was something ‘deeply ironic’ about formulating the support for science as a religious creed, Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson observe in The Weaponization of Expertise.”

The Motivated Skeptic: Some Thoughts on Elites, Populism, and The Mess We Are All In

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Motivated Skeptic, a Substack published by the Scottish philosopher Robin McKenna, has an thoughtful and extended review of Weaponization of Expertise:

A recent book…sets out to explain and critique the technocratic mindset and the common narrative about the problem with public discourse that goes with it…. They quite rightly skewer assorted members of the expert class for two related failings: they over-estimate their own skills and abilities, and they under-estimate the skills and abilities of ordinary people… As a corrective to the pathologies of elite discourse, this is welcome.

Ataraxia or Bust Review: A book review that underscores the current urgent need for skepticism.

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In Ataraxia or Bust, his Substack on Pyrrhonism, Doug Bates reviews The Weaponization of Expertise:

If you’re interested in an analysis of the extensive and wide-ranging recent failures of expertise, The Weaponization of Expertise is the go-to book.

Read the full essay here.

Le Point Essay: Has Covid killed democracy in the name of knowledge?

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Le Point, one of the major French news magazines, features The Weaponization of Expertise in an essay by Peggy Sastre:

Follow the science. This phrase, omnipresent throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, was intended to be reassuring…. But what initially served as a guide gradually turned into an injunction. Behind the legitimate call to reason, a shift occurred. It was no longer an invitation to understand, but a summons to remain silent. Don’t argue, the experts know. And anyone who questions ceases to be a citizen and becomes an obstacle. A heresy.