Weaponization of Expertise

Jacob Hale Russell is Associate Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School.Dennis Patterson is Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers Law School and Professor of Legal Philosophy at Surrey Law School, UK. He is the author, with Michael Pardo, of Minds, Brains, and Law.

• DedicationEpigraphsTable of ContentsPreface: “Just Follow the Science”Chapter 1. Expertise CorruptedPART I. AN OVERPLAYED HAND: The Age of Mindless ExpertiseChapter 2. Elites and Expert CultureChapter 3. The Misuse of ExpertiseChapter 4. Explaining the Abuse of ExpertisePART II. CALLING THEIR BLUFF: Populists Against ExpertsChapter 5. Misunderstanding PopulismChapter 6. Populist Habits of MindChapter 7. Expertise in PolicyPART III. DOUBLING DOWN: Weaponizing the Charge of MisinformationChapter 8. Much Ado about MisinformationChapter 9. Merchants of OverconfidenceChapter 10. The Closing of the Elite MindConclusion. Giving Political Judgment a ChanceAcknowledgmentsWorks Cited

Named one of "The Best Books of 2025" by the New Yorker.“[A] critical examination of technocratic expertise . . . [A] persuasive account.” —The New Yorker"The Weaponization of Expertise does not possess (or attempt) the grandeur of The Constitution of Knowledge. Rauch sets out to draft a constitution, whereas Russell and Patterson are merely prosecuting a case. But as a diagnosis of our political predicament, the latter offers the stronger account. CoK is too dismissive of populist discontent to help us make sense of it, and its noble abstractions float too far above the rough-and-tumble of our actual cultural conflicts. Russell and Hale’s seemingly simple story (in brief: elites overreach, populists call them out, elites double down) ultimately described these conflicts in a more realistic and grounded manner." —Fusion