Extremism

By: J.M. Berger

Narrated by: Matthew Josdal

Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A rising tide of extremist movements threaten to destabilize civil societies around the globe. It has never been more important to understand extremism, yet the dictionary definition - a logical starting point in a search for understanding - tells us only that extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme". In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, J. M. Berger offers a nuanced introduction to extremist movements, explaining what extremism is, how extremist ideologies are constructed, and why extremism can escalate into violence.  

Berger, an expert on extremist movements and terrorism, explains that extremism arises from a perception of "us versus them", intensified by the conviction that the success of "us" is inseparable from hostile acts against "them". Extremism differs from ordinary unpleasantness - run-of-the-mill hatred and racism - by its sweeping rationalization of an insistence on violence. Berger illustrates his argument with case studies and examples from around the world and throughout history, from the destruction of Carthage by the Romans - often called "the first genocide" - to the apocalyptic jihadism of Al Qaeda, America's new "alt-right", and the anti-Semitic conspiracy tract The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

©2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2019 Gildan Media, LLC

Performance is wooden and smug

Analysis is strong and also worth rereading, but I reduced 1 star for the performance. It’s just too wooden and smug.

Straightforward analysis of extremism.

Narration is acceptable, actually, a bit better than that.

As brief as this audio is, it could have been reduced to2–2.5 hours of listening, as a lot of the information is unnecessarily reiterated.

I RECOMMEND this audio, because the authors simple definition of extremism makes sense and is supported by extensive research, including compelling examples.

book is passable but plagued by left-wing bias

the book is passable but poisoned by left-wing bias and innuendo. "”Cato was an early populist-nationalist. He was a paleo-conservative even relative to the standards of the day— militaristic, misogynistic, and racist ”. Uh?! Of course, Berger here simply “telegraphs” the politically convenient rubbish some other woke somnambulist published elsewhere: academic cronyism. It is absurd to apply to people or events centuries or even millennia in the past the standards political opportunism dictates here this season. "”The actions of the conquistadors left as many as 70 million dead through a combination of intentional massacres, the effects of enslavement, and the introduction of deadly diseases ”. If only one figured that estimates for the Ottoman Empire's population in the year 1500 are at 15 million people.Of course, for many the only purpose of publishing any book on any arcane subject is to add political condiment that tickles the taste buds of the radical today. And many other examples I dispense with.