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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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Publisher's 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.
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Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
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Essential listening....
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By: Sheldon S. Wolin
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
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- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
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The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
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- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
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Few forests, but lots of trees
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular liberalelites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course.
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Such a relevant book to our current world
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In Ill Fares The Land, Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment. Judt masterfully crystallizes what we've all been feeling into a way to think our way into, and thus out of, our great collective dis-ease about the current state of things.
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Blah, Blah, Blah.
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Democracy Matters is Cornel West's bold and powerful critique of the troubling deterioration of democracy in America in this threatening post-9/11 age of terrorist rage and imperial overreach, and an inspiring call for a resurgence of the deep democratic tradition in our country, which has waged war on the forces of imperialist corruption throughout our history.
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The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.
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Thought Provoking Work On Liberty In America
- By Ezekiel on 05-28-19
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence examines the stories we’re told that lead us to think that the U.S. is a force for good in the world, regardless of slavery, the genocide of indigenous people, and the more than a century’s worth of imperialist war that the U.S. has wrought on the planet. Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong detail just what Captain America’s shield tells us about the pretensions of U.S. foreign policy, how Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates engage in humanitarian imperialism, and more.
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Still processing
- By D'Juan Eastman on 07-03-19
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Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only there but also back in the heartland of the West. In this brilliant work of political history, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of Communism turned out to be only the beginning of the age of the autocrat.
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Great text
- By Safronov on 05-03-21
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What listeners say about Identity
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- Shahin
- 09-19-18
Robotic narrator
Book content was excellent, but the gentleman narrating it for audible audiobook version read it like a robot reads an official memo.
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26 people found this helpful
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- Brad
- 11-14-18
Important Book; Destroyed.
If you can withstand unbearably horrible narration; narration so incredibly bad that you almost can't believe it; narration that gives rise to homicidal thoughts that you didn't even know you were capable of; narration that makes you long for (1) a chalkboard to scrape your fingernails on while (2) shooting your brains out with a very strong gun, then this is the audiobook for you.
As far as books go, it's good. It's good in terms of being read - by you... not by this horrible, bad, in need of reprimand, so bad you can't believe it's possible, so called narrator. Dear GOD! WHY! Oh Audible... Please find someone... anyone... to re-read this. The book is too good to be destroyed by such an amazingly horrible narrator. Jeez.......
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21 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-13-18
Good one if ur new to Fukuyama
Nice book only if u r new to Fukuyama but if u have read his others books then I think he is not offering that much of new thing other than repacking his idea
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- Gary
- 09-17-18
Lacks foundation, poor framing, silly remedies
Let me cut to the quick, there are three reasons why I felt this book was inadequate: 1) there was little new in it, 2) the author wrongly argues both sides are to blame by appealing to false dichotomies and false framing and 3) his solutions provided would only exasperate the real problem and not make it better.
For item 1), every author should assume that a reader of their book is interested in the topic and wants to learn more about the topic and is obligated to provide the reader something they don’t already know. In the first third of the book, the author breaks no new ground for those familiar with Charles Taylor’s ‘Sources of the Self’, Plato’s ‘Republic’, and for those who have listened to multiple Great Course Lectures on ‘identity’ and Martin Luther, and who are intimately familiar with Rousseau, and have read some of Freud, read lots of Kant, Nietzsche and Hegel, or have vaguely already understood what identity means. All of those items or people were presented within the first third of this book. I’ll even say it’s okay to bring the all too familiar up if the author can provide a narrative or look at it from a different angle and make the reader see differently, but this author did not. Do not underestimate your reading audience. Most of us want to really understand the world we live in and are doing what we can to the best of our abilities to learn about our world.
Charles Taylor made Schopenhauer his main character in his book. Fukuyama doesn’t mention Schopenhauer and he makes Rousseau his main character. That’s fine I guess, but there are connections that needed to be filled in that Fukuyama didn’t do for his reader and Rousseau’s dignity concept can be derived from Spinoza’s ‘conatus’ which led to Schopenhauer’s ‘will to live’ and Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’. In the end, it’s possible to describe Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ as self worth or one’s own self esteem (this author makes dignity and respect, self worth and self esteem of the individual, pivotal). The author is out of his field and expertise (I think he is a political scientist) and sometimes I felt he covered his topic superficially and to be brutally honest he should stick to topics he understands.
The author uses dignity as his focal point for rationalizing ones hate. I’ll say that in order to feel superior to the other all one needs to do is hate them, but in order to be superior all one needs to do is not hate the other. Using the word ‘dignity’ does not change the fact that one is justifying their feelings over their reason. The author appeals to ‘lived experiences’ and dignity as he strives to defend his ‘both siderism’, and the squishy middle which really does not exist when it comes to a reality that includes Nazis, alt-right and those who want a return to 1950s America which privileges the privileged over all others.
For item 2), when a Nazi runs a car into peaceful protesters the proper response is not ‘both sides are to blame’. That’s psychotic and an appeal to identity based on dignity doesn’t make it any less psychotic. (I want to be careful here, the author is not advocating that response, but he does rationalize it in some ways, and he does not call it for the psychotic unacceptable behavior that it surely is). Tolerance is not necessary when it comes to the ultimate purveyors of identity, Nazis. Diversity and tolerance are good, but is not necessary when it comes to purveyors of hate or Nazis. There were a lot of false equivalences and poor framing the author made in the middle part of the book. The author seemed to justify mocking a disable person (as candidate Trump did) as a standing up to ‘political correctness’ and that doesn’t make the act itself any less hateful and wrong. Shrouding ones hate with the label of anti ‘political correctness’ doesn’t lessen the cruelty of the act. I always translate ‘political correctness’ into terms of ‘politeness’. Things which are impolite are politically incorrect.
The author mocked changing the name of ‘manhole’ covers for the sake of political correctness. He really seemed to be channeling the spirit of the ravings against political correctness as espoused in the Unabomber’s Manifesto (I really recommend people read that trash, not because of its stupid arguments, but because that kind of thinking still prevails among the alt-right and Trump followers and those who think ‘both sides are to blame’ when Nazis run their cars into peaceful demonstrators). I think one of the most eye opening segments I’ve seen on TV was when an award show a couple of years ago pointed out how the word ‘actress’ is really sexist and that the ‘actors’ male and female would individually stand up and say ‘I am an actor’, sometimes ‘political correct’ (polite) behavior can make us aware of the ‘ism’ that lies within us such as sexism. That made a difference for me and it changed how I speak (and think) because of that. Morons still want to live in the 1950s and ‘make America great again’ as those supposedly ‘good old days’ by retaining the privileges of the privileged over everyone else who is not a member of the in-tribe.
For item 3), the author’s solutions are the exact opposite from the ones I would recommend. He wants to meld everyone’s identity (and values) into an amorphous blob that would best be characterized by that currently possessed by the privileged. He wants to bring back unearned pride in one’s own culture and the belief that just because it is one’s own tradition that makes it superior and more just than those of the others not part of the in-tribe thus making it easier to exclude those who are different. I think that one should never outsource ones beliefs and must appeal instead to rational justification, evidence, analysis and empirical reasoning. Why is it that those with the power and the privileges never think they are motivated by identity? I’m being rhetorical and already know the answer, but this book doesn’t seem to question that premise.
Those who want to learn nothing new, and think both sides are to blame and want the status quo to remain will enjoy this book. For the rest who really want to understand the sources of the self, read or listen to the books, the authors and the Great Courses alluded to in the second paragraph above.
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- D. Will Crowley
- 09-27-19
Let the author read!
I'm sick of voice actor readers on nonfiction books where the author is an articulate public speaker. Francis Fujiyama is a great communicator on this topic. He believes in it and understands it, so it's annoying to listen to someone else paid to just read the words on the page.
The reader isn't bad at his job, he's just not the expert here.
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-14-19
Great book destroyed by horrible reading
Is it possible to make fascinating ideas sound boring?
Yes it is! Have P. J .Ochlan speak them out loud!
I like this book. Fukuyama is great on this topic. Listen to the interviews with him whenever you can, or buy the printed book. But I couldn't even finish this book. This narration style is probably the worst I've heard in an audiobook.
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- yana
- 07-12-19
Robot voice not human
I have just finished The End of History and I loved it. I want to listen to this program too, but this narration kills me. I'll return it.
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- Charles
- 03-26-19
Good but ignored a crucial point
The author made a good case but I believe he ignored finer points that might have painted a different picture. Perhaps that came from a lack of a hands on knowledge of what he spoke of or perhaps he was blindsided by political perspective. I think two things must be added: firstly identities can be cultivated but also can also be consumed as a product. Second: the american situation is gridlocked artificially by the involvement of money and a wealthy donor class. Identity came to the front precisely because it served as a distraction from the rising economical inequalities brought by neo-liberalism.
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- Jeremias Pink
- 10-22-18
Not Fukuyama's strongest work.
The solution to the rising problem of ethnonationalism is nationalism? We can bemoan the divisiveness of "identity politics" or we can see outcries over injustice from communities of women, migrants, and minorities as democracy in action. The white nationalist reaction to these movements is a concern, but the solution is not for minority communities to "assimilate" into anglo american cultural norms, nor is it simply the creation of a more inclusive American identity. In a global political economy the old notion of the nation state as a bounded territory with a common language and set of values no longer works. In many parts of the world it never did. The creation of more just, democratic institutions will require us to embrace cultural difference, not the developmemt or reformulation new forms of national identity. Why should the burden of assimilation be placed on those communities that have historically been the most disenfranchized? In the US, it is those of us who enjoy positions of privelege who need to learn to adapt to a more open, inclusive society.
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- S. Archer
- 04-07-20
Book is good; audiobook is awful
I read this book before, and thoroughly enjoyed it. This should be required reading for any candidates for office!
That said, I tried the audiobook to refresh my memory. The reading is awful. Sounds like a very dry monotone lecture. Would be great if it were read by a news anchor.
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