In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You're Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book
FROM THE BOOK FLAP: I like you, book-flap reader. You are wandering in a store, picking up books that look interesting, and deciding whether to purchase them based on how attractive the author is. You are the type of easily influenced person whom I want to convince to help save society. And I can, thanks to genetics and a rigorous skin care regimen.
You are the ones who will decide whether the elite are replaced by people who operate solely from the gut. You have the power to resist the populists who are fending off all expertise, hurtling us backward to a time of wars, economic stagnation, tribalism, and fast food served on silver trays at White House events.
To find out how The New Dark Ages started and usher in the Intellectual Restoration, I spent a week in the county with the highest percentage of Trump voters. I went to the home of Trump-loving Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams; talked to Tucker Carlson; got lessons in obfuscation from a fake news kingpin; reproduced the experience of being an inexperienced government official by acting as mayor of L.A. for a day and interviewed members of secret organizations trying to create a new political party. All while wearing a cravat.
What I learned will change the way you think, vote, sleep, eat and pronounce certain words that you read in these pages, look up online and then press that volume button next to it. Best of all, it will infuriate your relatives when they see it on your coffee table.
Reviews
“In this hilarious refereeing of the culture wars, former Time columnist Stein roams America studying wealthy, Ivy league-educated, conference-attending elites and their populist detractors... The result is an insightful, uproarious take on America’s political divide.”
“Former Time staff writer and columnist Stein (Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity, 2012) brings wit, irreverence, and considerable thoughtfulness to a timely issue: the rise of anti-elitism in politics, science, education, and many other areas that privilege knowledge and expertise... A wise perspective on America’s cultural divide.”
“Every paragraph of this book will make you laugh, but it will also (I promise) change the way you think. ”
“I can think of no one more suited to defend elitism than Stein, a funny man with hands as delicate as a baby full of soft-boiled eggs.”
“In these troubled times, we need somebody to bring us together. Instead, we have Joel Stein and this brilliantly funny book. So let’s let somebody else unite us while we let Joel Stein entertain the hell out of us.”
“With this indispensable book, Joel Stein firmly establishes himself as the Ted Nugent of elitism.”
“How can someone be so erudite and so funny at the same time? Read this book, be deeply offended by how much you laugh, then get yourself a chili dog to cleanse your intellectual palate. Then read it again. It’s hilarious”
“As a white male Yale grad from New England who now lives in New York City and works in media, I feel like this book was written just for me. However, I will allow Joel Stein to publish other copies and sell you one because it really is that good!”
“Joel Stein is a condescending bastard, but he’s also very funny, insightful and correct.”
Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity
FROM THE PUBLISHER: The smudge looked suspiciously penis-like. The doctor confirmed: "That's the baby's penis!" which caused not celebration, but panic. Joel pictured having to go camping and fix a car and use a hammer and throw a football and watch professionals throw footballs and figure out whether to be sad or happy about the results of said football throwing.
So begins his quest to confront his effete nature whether he likes it or not (he doesn't), by doing a twenty-four-hour shift with L.A. firefighters, going hunting, rebuilding a house, driving a Lamborghini, enduring three days of boot camp with the U.S. Army, day-trading with $100,000, and going into the ring with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture. Seeking help from a panel of experts, including his manly father-in-law, Boy Scouts, former NFL star Warren Sapp, former MLB All-Star Shawn Green, Adam Carolla, and a pit bull named Hercules, he expects to learn that masculinity is defined not by the size of his muscles, but by the size of his heart (also, technically, a muscle). This is not at all what he learns.
Reviews
“To man up, Stein goes all Plimpton . . . Man Made reminds us of his wonderful ability to find surprise within a cliché . . . hilarious.”
“Many of us men in the Western world struggle with this “forced manliness”- there is a lot of pressure. For some, it is a real struggle. I have seen Joel try to chew tobacco in an attempt to prove that estrogen does not imprison his body. Looking down at his lap and bashfully wiping the remnants of spilled tobacco off his J. Crew slacks did not help his cause. The fact that he laughed at it, though, did. He caught himself trying to be manly and laughed. That is a true man.”
“Stein proves himself to be a champion humorist by probing the serious side of his subject while peppering the paragraphs with numerous fresh and funny notions.”
“I am the father only of daughters, and so didn’t suffer any existential midlife panic about discovering and demonstrating my latent manliness. But I am happy Joel did, because his infant son inspired him to report and write this rare and splendid thing: an open-minded, open-hearted, bracingly honest, laugh-out-loud-funny memoir that takes life just seriously enough.”
“Joel Stein is one of the funniest writers I’ve read. An incredible, hilarious saga of one man’s transformation from really wimpy to just kind of wimpy.”
“If Joel Stein can learn to be a man, a man in the old and rugged sense of the word, then anyone can. And that’s what gives me hope. What gave me profound and dizzy pleasure, though, was reading this wild account of how he did it. I dare you to follow him on his dangerous quest and I double dare you not to laugh.”