One National Security Professor Alarmed By 'The Death Of Expertise'

Published March 13, 2017 at 1:20 PM EDT

A student walks near Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA on April 23, 2012 in Los Angeles, Calif. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Professor of national security affairs and author Tom Nichols ( @RadioFreeTom) believes there is a growing divide between experts and the rest of the American citizenry.

In his book, “ The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters,” Nichols writes he’s alarmed by the anger that's been expressed by some Americans toward academia:

“I fear we are moving beyond a natural skepticism regarding expert claims to the death of the ideal of expertise itself: a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laypeople, teachers and students, knowers and wonderers — in other words, between those with achievement in an area and those with none.”

Nichols joins Here & Now‘s Meghna Chakrabarti to talk about the book, and what distrust in expertise looks like today.