Tuesday, June 9, 2020

"The Death of Expertise" by Tom Nichols

I finally finished reading "The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters" by Tom Nichols. 

As I said in a recent "Right Now" post, "This one has been on my shelf for quite a while now... and I would say it's even more relevant today than when it was published in 2017. It's well written & I agree with the general premise. But I'm finding it a bit of a slog at the moment. I'm thinking something lighter for my next read...!"  It took me over a month to get through this one -- and it's only 237 pages of text -- notes not included!

Nichols, Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, is the same age as me. While I don't agree with all of his views, I enjoy reading his Twitter feed. :)  In this book, he explores why -- despite technology advances and increasing levels of education -- so many people are rejecting the opinions of experts, and what implications this phenomenon has for democracy. (Spoiler alert:  it's not good.)  

I'm not sorry I stuck with this one -- but I'm happy to finish & move on to something else.  Three stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #15 read to date in 2020 (Book #1 finished in June). I'm currently at 50% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. :)

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