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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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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Some important and urgent insights

Clear minded consideration of the dynamics of identity vis a vis the liberal democratic state, posing some important questions and making some urgent and fair recommendations. Just annoyed that he grounds it in ancient Greek ideas about the mind rather than the modern science of psychology, which does not get mentioned once!

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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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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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A guide through very muddy waters!

I staggered through one of the author’s longer productions without feeling I’d learned very much but this book is succinct, clear , and covers it’s chosen ground well; from spiritual sociology-economic and psychological ositions , joining up a lot of what Michael Sandel refers to as intuitionism ethical stances into something more recognisable as a systematic way of thinking, though with no pat solutions. Perhaps some of his solutions may be a little less than practicable in our damaged world, but there is enough food for thought in a mercifully brief production to make it well worth reading and retaining as a basis for our own attempts to make sense of this seemingly intractable problem.

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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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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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Book aged poorly

Fukuyama does a great job setting up his ideas and arguments. He critizes both left and far right, arguing how identity can be a deadly path to go down.

However, his critique of the right stay supperficial and a strawman. Although he at parts seem to understand the rise of the right, its never legitimized as a position. Especially Trump and Hungary are relentsly attacked.

It aged badly due to corona, which clearly showed an authoritarian strain in globalism, which Fukuyama seems to be blind towards in this book. Especially populism and the right was warning about the trend in globalist tyranny, but Fukuyama at time of writing only sees this in the far left and the right.

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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