Head Cases: America's Politics of Intellect and Indignation

By David C. Barker and Ron Elving

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0197647596
• ISBN13: 9780197647592
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 272 Pages