Introduction : the power to ignore -- Narrow history -- Seeing ignorance differently -- Elite agnotologists -- The Murdoch strategy -- Suspicious attention -- Know-it-all epistocrats -- Conflict blindness -- Masters of industry, masters of ignorance -- The ostrich instruction -- Good experts -- The pretence of ignorance -- Conclusion : the great enlargement.

"Deliberate ignorance has been known as the 'Ostrich Instruction' in law courts since the 1860s. It illustrates a recurring pattern in history in which figureheads for major companies, political leaders and industry bigwigs plead ignorance to avoid culpability. So why do so many figures at the top still get away with it when disasters on their watch damage so many people's lives? When the phone hacking scandal rocked the United Kingdom in 2011, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News International, knew nothing of the criminal goings-on. After a fire swept through Grenfell Tower, it soon came to light that the traedy was a result of the wilfull ignorance of experts. Does the idea that knowledge is power still apply in today's post-truth world. A bold, wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ignorance and power in the modern age, from debates over colonial power and economic rent-seeking in the 18th and 19th centuries to the legal defences of today, The Unknowers shows that strategic ignorance has not only long been an inherent part of modern power and big business, but also that true power lies in the ability to convince others of where the boundary between ignorance and knowledge lies."-- Taken from back cover.