Head Cases

America's Politics of Intellect and Indignation
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-0-19-764759-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 235 mm

A deep dive into the intellectual rifts between Democrats and Republicans, how they happened, how they're damaging democracy, and how to reverse those trends.

Deriding book-smarts is an American pastime, but the spirit and significance of that scorn have been completely transformed. Anti-intellectualism has come to unite the Republican Party because intellectualism has come to define the Democratic party. Critically, given the class standing and cultural clout that intellectuals now tend to enjoy, the Right's contempt is more aggrieved than it is mocking.

In Head Cases, David C. Barker and Ron Elving examine the politics of intellect and indignation in the United States. Through original survey data, randomized experiments, and deep historical dives, they explain how Republicans came to loathe the intellectual establishment, how Democrats came to inhabit the intellectual establishment, and how this deepening divide over diplomas and deference is pushing American democracy to the brink. Specifically, the authors investigate the impacts of Republican rage-casting, religious resentments and meritocratic romanticism, coupled with Democratic smirk-casting, secular superciliousness and meritocratic cynicism.

Unsparing in their assessment of responsibility for this rift, Barker and Elving challenge their own community to close it. By diversifying its ranks in terms of social class and religious perspectives--and thus by ideological viewpoints--the intellectual establishment can gradually chart a path toward renewing public trust, restoring the policy relevance of verified facts, and revitalizing democratic health.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Barker, David C.

Elving, Ron

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Introduction: Head Spinning

- Section I Headaches: Describing America's Politics of Intellect and Indignation

- 2: Headlights: Clarifying Intellectual Identity and Intellectual Esteem

- 3: Headcount: Documenting Intellectual Identity and Intellectual Esteem

- 4: Butting Heads: The Partisan Polarization of Intellectual Identity and Intellectual Esteem

- Section II Headwinds: Chronicling America's Politics of Intellect and Indignation

- 5: Cooler Heads: Intellectual Ascendance in American Culture and the Democratic Party

- 6: Hotheads: Populist Ire from Left to Right, Targeting Capital to Targeting Credentials

- 7: Head, Heart, and Soul: Evangelical Christianity and "The Life of the Mind"

- 8: Talking Heads: Media as Anti-Intellectual Agents and Anti-Intellectual Targets

- Section III Heads Examined: Explaining America's Politics of Intellect and Indignation

- 9: Getting Ahead: Meritocratic Cynicism-Idealism and the Politics of Intellectual Esteem

- 10: Heads Bowed: Religion and the Politics of Intellectual Esteem

- 11: with Andrew M. O. Ballard, and Ryan Detamble: Headlines: Partisan Media, Social Media, and the Politics of Intellectual Esteem

- 12: Conclusion: Shaking Our Heads. or Making Headway?

Über Autor(innen)

David C. Barker is Professor of Government at American University and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He previously served as Director of Social and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation and as Director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, where he co-founded the Program on Legislative Negotiation. He is the author or coauthor of five previous books: Rushed to Judgment (2002), Representing Red and Blue (Oxford, 2012), One Nation, Two Realities (Oxford, 2019), The Politics of Truth in Polarized America (Oxford, 2021), and Dealmakers (Oxford, 2025).

Ron Elving is Executive in Residence Emeritus at American University and Senior Political Contributor for National Public Radio, where he is heard regularly and writes for npr.org/politics as a commentator on contemporary politics and events. He was previously NPR Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk beginning in 1999. Prior

to that, he was the Political Editor for USA Today and Political Editor for Congressional Quarterly Inc. He is the author of a legislative case study on the Family and Medical Leave Act, Conflict and Compromise: How Congress Makes the Law (1996).