Identity: Contemporary Identity and the Struggle for Recognition

The result: increasing anti-immigrant sentiment, rioting on college campuses, and the return of open white supremacy to our politics. In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American and global institutions were in a state of decay, as the state was 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 destabilise the entire international order. 

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 continual conflict.

"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."  -  Kirkus Reviews