The Madness of Crowds

Gender, Race and Identity

By: Douglas Murray

Narrated by: Douglas Murray

Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year
Updated with a new afterword by the author

'Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech ... A truthful look at today's most divisive issues' – Jordan B. Peterson

'[Murray’s] latest book is beyond brilliant and should be read, must be read, by everyone' – Richard Dawkins

Are we living through the great derangement of our times?

In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness’, the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.

One of the few writers who dares to counter the prevailing view and question the dramatic changes in our society – from gender reassignment for children to the impact of transgender rights on women – Murray’s penetrating book, now published with a new afterword taking account of the book's reception and responding to the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, clears a path of sanity through the fog of our modern predicament.

©2019 Douglas Murray (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

A luminous, honest and rational voice of our time

A necessary and vitally important message in a time of confusion. Tackling the highly infected, and inflated, topics around race, gender and sexuality, is not easy. Yet, Douglas Murray manages to do just this with wit, intelligence and eloquence. Occationally, there is a poetic veauty and humanness in his words that are really toyghing; a humbleness and wisdom so clearly lacking in the outrageous claims of today's social justice warriors.
This book is a must read for any sane person who, understandably, is feeling sad and perplexed at the weird and deranged shift in the conversation we have obswrved over the past decade. This book boosted my confidence in my ability to meet and engage in these complex issues with integrity of thought and heart.
Heartfelt thanks to Mr. Murray for his outstanding and genuinely brilliant work in this heavily mined field of views! May we all take inspiration from his example and dare speak truthfully in this time of confusion.

Sums up a lot of current tough topics

Warning: this review is provided by a white heterosexual cis male.

I tend to keep my views very quiet on topics like these because of the massive hellfire that can rain down upon me. The overall theme of the book shows how the blow back on even the slightest comments are disproportionate and makes everyone live on pins and needles.

The stories aren’t new. I spend probably too much of my time listening and reviewing these topics, and to be honest it’s probably not great for mental health. But Douglas reviews a lot of stories that anyone who has spent a little time on these topics have already heard (ie Evergreen, Yale, Caitlin Jenner, etc.). But Douglas brings all these LGBTQ and SJW topics to one place and show how they have built off of and conflict one another.

He presents some great solutions at the end and they are not complicated. We need to return to places of forgiveness and empathy, we need to depoliticize everything and go back to working together to find solutions, and lastly just get the hell off social media and start communicating in person again.

If anyone says this book is just about slamming LGBTQ and SJW they are wrong. Douglas (who is gay himself) shows where these groups come from, the positive aspects of these social groups but doesn’t shy away from where they fall short. It’s a complicated world and these are complicated topics and he unpacks them well.

I will be looking to listen to more of Douglas’ work in the future

Every woke or anti-woke must read!

supperb description of what is the cause and possible consecuenses that driving our society to an uncertain future.

Brilliant

A remarkable intellectual journey in a time when such things are frowned upon. More please!

A sober look at the current culture.

Mr. Murray brings to light the contradictions and presumptions that exist in our culture.

An unflinching look at todays apparent societal reorganization

The author lays out a compelling case for the reader to question today’s prevailing orthodoxy in the social, political, and indeed moral/ethical spheres of existence. Replete with examples that, while perhaps not entirely mainstream, but certainly far more representative than would be hoped in today’s progressive world, Douglas Murray uncovers contradictions and inconsistencies that any thinking individual must consider once being made aware of them.
A worthwhile read.

As Excellent As It Is Terrifyingly Accurate

Well, it's Douglas Murray, the man is brilliant and articulate and demonstrates these throughout.

The voice of the gifted author makes this superb listening

The topic is presented not in dry tones and with an undercurrent of . . . where is humanity going that it can be toyed with so easily by so unauthentic few

It’s a delivered as stories of real people finding trip wires and getting more than their socks knocked off
Brilliantly thought out . . . as only Douglas Murray does so well . . . articulated so you think about what he’s saying and remember it — totally recommend

Charles at his best!!!

A book we all need to read or listen too. Charles did an amazing job explaining the trends ongoing in the culture in the west.

Above average treatment of identity politics

Ours is an age of enforced ideological/moral conformism and Douglas Murray sets out to question the whole project. More intellectual than your standard conservative polemic, The Madness of Crowds makes some good points about inherent contradictions in “intersectional”/identitarian ideologies. It is, however, still a bit polemical (in a ‘aren’t these people ridiculous?’ kind of way) and not a rigorous refutation necessarily. It makes passing references to the Marxist/Foucaultian roots of the ideology without digging deeper and explaining. A missed opportunity for those of us seeking some sanity/solid explanation amid the current madness, but the book is still an above-average treatment of the topic, all things considered. “Gay” I thought was the weakest chapter, but stick with it because the others (“Gender”, “Race”, “Trans”) are insightful and the conclusion is strong as well. You’ll learn why “trans” ideology and feminism are incompatible, why “intersectionality” is inherently impossible, the implied concession leftists make when they rush to the defense of their ideological bedfellows credibly accused of bigotry, and why all identity politics is necessarily divisive and not meant to offer any solutions.