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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. 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 as a series of political outsiders rose to power. They are populist nationalists who seek direct charismatic connection to "the people," offering an irresistible call to an in-group while excluding 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 rise of 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 cannot be transcended - and as Fukuyama cogently argues, we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports democracy.
List of contents
Preface
1. The Politics of Dignity
2. The Third Part of the Soul
3. Inside and Outside
4. From Dignity to Democracy
5. Revolutions of Dignity
6. Expressive Individualism
7. Nationalism and Religion
8. The Wrong Address
9. Invisible Man
10. The Democratization of Dignity
11. From Identity to Identities
12. We the People
13. Stories of Peoplehood
14. What is to be Done?
About the author
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has previously taught at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and at the George Mason University School of Public Policy. He was a researcher at the RAND Corporation and served as the deputy director in the State Department's policy planning staff. He is the author of
The End of History and the Last Man,
Trust, and
America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy. He lives with his wife in California.
