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Identity
- The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
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Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state
In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people”, who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.
Demand for recognition of one’s identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal recognition on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious “identity liberalism” of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism. Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.
Identity is an urgent and necessary book - a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
What listeners say about Identity
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- AGGELOS IOAKIMIDES
- 31-03-19
Is so bad that it does not allow the content work
Yes it is very theoretical. Yeah it has difficult context to elaborate on. Yes it does not have. All of this is impossible to follow with the worst narration I have ever heard! Placing periods every four words and throwing commas around, finishing the sentence in the middle, without any understanding of context, any feel for the story, and tonality that sounds like an awful commercial. I really think this book should be re-recorded because the audiobook is destroyed by the narration. It sounds like it is machine made. Dr Sbaitso, not an audiobook. I will finish it because I payed for it and because it is interesting. I will wrestle. 40% in and I suffer.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Olly Buxton
- 03-06-19
Mediocre arguments presented by terrible narrator
If Fukuyama is struggling to retain credibility after The End of History then this old-fashioned, pedestrian affair is not likely to help. Certainly not with a narrator that sounds like a speak-and-spell. Only 6 and a half hours long, no real penetration or insight into the issue du jour, citing Hegel, Kant and Hobbes like some sophomore term paper - there must be better efforts than this.
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5 people found this helpful
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- P Iveson
- 28-01-19
Not so sure about this one.
I felt quite uneasy listening to this at times. I'm centre-right but I listen to and respect the opinions and work of an awful lot of liberals. But here there were quite a few occasions, increasingly towards the end, where I felt the author's bias coming through. Ordinarily I'd say a bias is to be expected, but it led to the author explaining certain elements of current affairs in a way that would lead someone less informed to confirm opinions they may hold about things the media are currently publishing, regarding trump and the right wing. He made several points that conflict with information I'm currently reading in Black Rednecks and White Liberals, as well as passing disingenuous comments about trump, all while defending and sympathising with the left. The biggest gripe for me being the incident at Charlottesville and trump's comments about "both sides" which he cleared up about 100 times since, and then the author makes vague statements about trump nodding to white supremacy. I don't even like trump and I have a clearer view of things than this book does.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Good Grain
- 12-11-18
Blandly academic
It starts badly with a dull disposition on the misunderstandings around his once famous but now rather dated book "The End of History and the Last Man" which really should have been left out as irrelevant to the topic at hand. It picks up thereafter but it doesn't offer anything beyond an academic overview of some of the key writers about identity over the last few hundred years and in this regard it is unspectacular but passable. Alas once it hits more modern times it becomes ever closer to a bog standard soft left editorial devoid of anything fresh to say and hence bland.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Adrian J. Smith
- 27-05-21
The explanation of our present ills
Fukuyama may be one of the best known and most maligned political scientists due to his rather triumphalist End of History thesis, something he never argued as a definite conclusion and he has since revised.
Within Identity he looks at the roots of modern identity politics and examines how they play out in today's world.
Fukuyama examines the origin of modern identity, starting with the European Reformation and moving toward today's anxieties surrounding nationalism and supranational entities.
Two recurring themes are the election of Donald Trump, the departure of Britain from the EU and the movement toward more agitative nationalism from places such as Turkey to Russia.
The book is unsurprisingly America centric, as evinced in the final chapter detailing solutions for immigration reform in the US, but nonetheless Identity is universally applicable due to Fukuyama's understanding of the issue and his immense readability.
The narration is excellent and never lets down the pace, making it a highly enjoyable read or listen.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Miss B K M Jones
- 17-05-21
Impossible to listen to
The narrator has such a robotic voice and repetitive intonation it's impossible to take in what he's actually saying.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Parissa
- 01-06-21
Extremely interesting and relevant book
« Identity » is an extremely timely, relevant and interesting book, examining amongst others, the origins of group and national identity, the rise of identity politics and its consequences, the rise of populism, etc. It is very clearly and succinctly written and is a very accessible book. I found some of the ideas so interesting, I frequently had to stop or re-listen, to think about what had been said and absorb the ideas.
Such an extremely interesting book deserved a much better narrator. At first, it felt like listening to an automated voice. It was a credit to how interesting I found the content of the book that I carried on listening. Anything else by this narrator would have been promptly returned.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 20-03-21
exceptional
This book, along with "The end of history & the last man" have been the two books i have read that have helped me understand todays political climate nost clearly.
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- Sly Jobs
- 26-12-20
concise explanation
the theory, which it is, is well documented and spans diverse subtexts despite being presented in a concise and clear manner. its a good book from a great mind
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- Uncle Ted
- 01-03-20
Brilliant
This book says everything you need to know about the political crisis we are in – fair, objektiv, deep. Thank you Mr Fukuyama
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1 person found this helpful