In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You Are Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book

In this hilarious refereeing of the culture wars, former Time columnist Stein (Man Made) roams America studying wealthy, Ivy league–educated, conference-attending elites and their populist detractors. In Miami, Tex.—located in Roberts County, where 95.3% of the population voted for Trump—he finds not violent yahoos but friendly, thoughtful conservatives who nicely try to convert his Jewish-atheist soul to Christianity. At a Resistance party with Hollywood elites in L.A., he finds liberal dogmas even more rigid than Texan Baptists’ certitudes. And he fences with such “populist elites” as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams and Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson as they disparage elite expertise in favor of Trump-ian gut instincts and nationalist allegiances. A halfhearted elitist himself, Stein makes a case against the epistemic anarchism of populists, conspiracy theorists, and antivaxxers, arguing that Americans need intellectual elites to run society—his hero is L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti, fixer of potholes and transit systems—and to protect individual rights. Stein’s excellent reportage keeps the ideology light andis full of one-liners—“elites feel the same way about college as non-elites do about church,” especially because “our church got us drunk and laid”—that generously skewer everyone. The result is an insightful, uproarious take on America’s political divide. [em](Oct.) [/em]