Review by Choice Review
In Identity, Fukuyama (Hoover) attempts to explain the emergence of nationalist movements in the US, Great Britain, and elsewhere, as well as the attraction of jihadist movements among second-generation European Muslims. He suggests that the liberal world did not benefit everyone. Rising inequality within nations has led to feelings of invisibility and resentment. The white working classes have seen their earning potential decline with little attention paid to that reality by those who had previously championed the working class. With the Left seeking policy reform for those most marginalized, the needs of the working class have been forgotten. Similarly, young Muslims living in the West feel caught between two worlds, not accepted by the countries in which they live nor feeling close to the culture of their parents. Nationalist and religious movements based in identity politics have allowed both to reclaim their dignity and pride, and to be visible again. In order to move beyond such rigid views of nationalism, Fukuyama suggests the need for policies encouraging nationalism based on democratic ideals as opposed to ones based on race, religion, or even multiculturalism. Highly recommended. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Marie Olson Lounsbery, East Carolina University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
THE SPLINTERING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: Identity Politics, Inequality, and Community on Today's College Campuses, by William Egginton. (Bloomsbury, $28.) Egginton, a professor at Johns Hopkins, regards the often militant discourse around identity with sympathy and concern. THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. (Penguin Press, $28.) Expanding on their influential Atlantic article, the authors trace the culture of "safetyism" on campus to a generation convinced of its own fragility, warning of potentially dire consequences for democracy. IDENTITY: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, by Francis Fukuyama. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) In a sympathetic analysis of identity politics, Fukuyama argues that the sense of being dismissed, rather than material interest, is the current locomotive of human affairs. THE LIES THAT BIND: Rethinking Identity: Creed, Country, Color, Class, Culture, by Kwame Anthony Appiah. (Liveright, $27.95.) Appiah, a cosmopolitan by background and choice, says that we tend to think of ourselves as part of monolithic tribes up against other tribes, whereas we each contain multitudes. ARTHUR ASHE: A Life, by Raymond Arsenault. (Simon & Schuster, $37.50.) This first major biography of the great tennis champion, written by a civil rights historian, shows that Ashe's activism was as important as his athletic skill. He belongs on the Mount Rushmore of elite sports figures who changed America. DEAD GIRLS: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, by Alice Bolin. (Morrow/HarperCollins, paper, $15.99.) Bolin's stylish and inspired collection centers on the figure - ubiquitous in police procedurals from "Twin Peaks" to "True Detective" - of the "dead girl," a character who represents a dominant American fantasy, inciting desire and rage in equal measure. THIS MOURNABLE BODY, by Tsitsi Dangarembga. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) In this accomplished sequel to "Nervous Conditions," her prize winning debut of 30 years ago, Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean author and filmmaker, finds her indomitable heroine, Tambu, single, middle-aged and unemployed but unbowed. NOTES FROM THE FOG: Stories, by Ben Marcus. (Knopf, $26.95.) In his latest collection, the ever inventive Marcus delivers taut, bleak, dystopian stories that are disturbing and outlandish yet somehow eminently plausible. MARWAN'S JOURNEY, by Patricia de Arias. Illustrated by Laura Borras. (MinEdition, $17.99; ages 5 to 7.) This sensitive, beautifully illustrated tale of a boy's journey across a desert, away from his war-torn homeland, ends with safety and dreams of return. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Leading political theorist Fukuyama (Political Order and Political Decay, 2014) suggests that liberal democracy is in global crisis because of knotty, interrelated problems having to do with thymos, the human desire for dignity and respect. An ancient concept, thymos is described by Plato as the source of both anger and pride, a permanent part of human nature and the foundation of social hierarchy. But modern concepts of personhood have universalized notions of dignity and allowed the private quest for self to become a political project. So now, economic inequality and rapid, disruptive change have intensified identity confusion and exacerbated age-old tensions between the isothymic, who demand to be respected equally with others, and the megalothymic, who insist upon being respected as superior. Thus, democratic institutions strained by tribalism and the politics of resentment. The solution, suggests Fukuyama, is not rejection of identity politics, but rather a reinvigorated creedal identity in which national identity is tied to shared values as opposed to race, ethnicity, or religion so that thymos is channeled into constructive ends, like civic engagement. Keenly thought-provoking and timely.--Brendan Driscoll Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Political scientist Fukuyama (The End of History and the Last Man) makes an ambitious and provocative critique of identity politics, which he locates in both the leftist crusade for equality for marginalized people and right-wing ethnonationalism and "economic anxieties," which he says are "actually rooted in the demand for recognition." He organizes his analysis around the concept of thymos, "the part of the soul that craves recognition of dignity," which results in either "a desire to be respected on an equal basis with other people" (which, thwarted by marginalization, spurs leftist identity politics), or a "desire to be recognized as superior" (which he connects to dictatorial leaders). He draws from philosophers such as Hegel and Marx; traces the ascendancy of modern liberal democracies, specifically the French Revolution; and turns a critical lens on the Arab Spring, Europe's immigrant crisis, and Donald Trump to argue that identity politics has morphed into a "politics of resentment." The analysis ends with proposals for promoting broader conceptions of identity that bring people together to support liberal democracy's functioning. This erudite work is likely to spark debate. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The renowned political scientist argues persuasively, and urgently, that a desire for recognition of one's dignity is inherent in every human beingand is necessary for a thriving democracy.Drawing on Luther, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, among others, Fukuyama (International Studies/Stanford Univ.; Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy, 2014, etc.) offers a historical overview leading to the modern concept of identity as comprised of thymos ("a universal aspect of human personality that craves recognition"), a belief in the distinction between the inner and outer self, and an evolving concept of universal dignity. "The broadening and universalization of dignity turns the private quest for self into a political project," he writes. The author ascribes the contemporary rise of identity politics to a yearning "for equal recognition by groups that have been marginalized by their societies." These groups, mobilized by political leaders around the idea that their dignity has been disparaged or disregarded, fuel a "politics of resentment." Fukuyama sees nothing wrong with identity politics, unless "ever narrower group identities" threaten "the possibility of communication and collective action." When identity groupsseeking recognition on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or religionsee one another as threats, they will resist identifying themselves with "more integrative national identities" that are essential for democratic societies. Economic modernization and rapid social change shatter a sense of community and lead to "confusing pluralism" that often causes individuals to align themselves with religious or nationalistic groups. "Both nationalism and Islamism," writes the author, "can thus be seen as a species of identity politics." He faults the left for failing to build solidarity around large collectivities (the working class, for example), instead focusing on "every smaller" marginalized groups. To counter this fragmentation, Fukuyama advises that "successful assimilation of foreigners" might curb vociferous populism, required national service could encourage "virtue and public spiritedness," and basic civics must become a strong part of public education to foster informed, open-minded citizens.A cogent analysis of dire threats to democracy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
