A cogent analysis of dire threats to democracy.
The renowned political scientist argues persuasively, and urgently, that a desire for recognition of one’s dignity is inherent in every human being—and is necessary for a thriving democracy.
Drawing on Luther, Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, among others, Fukuyama (International Studies/Stanford Univ.; Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy, 2014, etc.) offers a historical overview leading to the modern concept of identity as comprised of thymos (“a universal aspect of human personality that craves recognition”), a belief in the distinction between the inner and outer self, and an evolving concept of universal dignity. “The broadening and universalization of dignity turns the private quest for self into a political project,” he writes. The author ascribes the contemporary rise of identity politics to a yearning “for equal recognition by groups that have been marginalized by their societies.” These groups, mobilized by political leaders around the idea that their dignity has been disparaged or disregarded, fuel a “politics of resentment.” Fukuyama sees nothing wrong with identity politics, unless “ever narrower group identities” threaten “the possibility of communication and collective action.” When identity groups—seeking recognition on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or religion—see one another as threats, they will resist identifying themselves with “more integrative national identities” that are essential for democratic societies. Economic modernization and rapid social change shatter a sense of community and lead to “confusing pluralism” that often causes individuals to align themselves with religious or nationalistic groups. “Both nationalism and Islamism,” writes the author, “can thus be seen as a species of identity politics.” He faults the left for failing to build solidarity around large collectivities (the working class, for example), instead focusing on “every smaller” marginalized group. To counter this fragmentation, Fukuyama advises that “successful assimilation of foreigners” might curb vociferous populism, required national service could encourage “virtue and public spiritedness,” and basic civics must become a strong part of public education to foster informed, open-minded citizens.
A cogent analysis of dire threats to democracy.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-374-12929-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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