{"product_id":"9780385479431","title":"In Defence of Elitism","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic  for \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine comes the  tremendously controversial, yet highly persuasive,  argument that our devotion to the largely  unexamined myth of egalitarianism lies at the heart of the  ongoing \"dumbing of America.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmericans have always stubbornly clung to the  myth of egalitarianism, of the supremacy of the  individual average man. But here, at long last,  Pulitzer Prize-winning critic William A. Henry III  takes on, and debunks, some basic, fundamentally  ingrained ideas: that everyone is pretty much alike  (and should be); that self-fulfillment is more  imortant thant objective achievement; that everyone  has something significant to contribute; that all  cultures offer something equally worthwhile; that  a truly just society would automatically produce  equal success results across lines of race,  class, and gender; and that the common man is almost  always right. Henry makes clear, in a book full of  vivid examples and unflinching opinions, that  while these notions are seductively democratic they  are also hopelessly wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47052807209200,"sku":"9780385479431","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780385479431_p0.jpg?v=1763695042","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780385479431","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}