Read this twenty years ago, so memory is a bit fuzzy. Looking back, I don't remember any argument
That's not a bad thing. Not at all.

But the fascist tendencies of the authors he talks about are often illustrated by personal effects and records of conversations. I think we've all probably had a moan about overweight tourists and Ashford, Kent.

I liked it. But I'm not sure if there's a convincing thesis here.

The New Criterion invokes Godwin's Law. They go too far. But the basic idea of the book is that modernist intellectuals suffered a snobbery bordering on fascism. So, perhaps, New Criterion doesn’t go that too far?