Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist, Financial Times, Inc., Prospect Magazine, and The Conversation
“The most comprehensive and reasonable story of this shift that has yet been attempted . . . Mounk has told the story of the Great Awokening better than any other writer who has attempted to make sense of it.” —The Washington Post
“An intellectual tour de force about the origins of identity politics and the threat it presents to genuine, honest, old-fashioned liberalism.” —Bret Stephens, The New York Times
“Among the most insightful and important books written in the last decade on American democracy and its current torments, because it also shows us a way out of the trap.” —Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, and coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind
“Outstanding.” —David Brooks, The New York Times
A fascinating account of the origins of “wokeness”—and a trenchant explanation for why the noble goals of identity politics are doomed to fail
For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice. But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups transformed into our contemporary form of identity politics, a counterproductive obsession with group identity. This new ideology denies that members of different groups can truly understand each other and insists that the way governments treat their citizens should depend on the color of their skin.
This, Yascha Mounk argues, is the identity trap. Those who battle for these ideas are often full of good i
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