Two Reviews of Nancy MacLean

Both probably gated for you.

1. Writing in a WSJ compendium of what people read in 2018, Patricia O’Toole writes,

The acute inflammation of the American body politic prompted close readings of Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” and Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains.”

2. Writing a long review in the Journal of Economic Literature, Jean-Baptiste Fleury and Alain Marciano write,

MacLean does not provide convincing proofs to sustain the accusations she makes. Determined as she is to portray one man as the mastermind of her story, MacLean tries to make everything fit into that implausible assumption, no matter the cost. This gives an account marred by imprecisions, mistakes, distortions, unproven assumptions about the motives behind each character’s actions, and sometimes a surprising lack of rigor. Sadly enough, it is only by misrepresenting her main characters that MacLean can construct the story she insists on telling and that, in the end, proves unconvincing.

If would bet that Ms. O’Toole, a professional historian, will stay safely within her bubble. It is unlikely that she will ever see the review in the JEL; on the off chance that she does read the review, my guess is that she will find some excuse to dismiss it.