Identity

Currently in Bill Gates's bookbag and FT Books of 2018 Increasingly, the demands of identity direct the world's politics. Nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, gender: these categories have overtaken broader, inclusive ideas of who we are. We have built walls rather than bridges. The result: increasing in 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 threatens to destabilise the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to 'the people', who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole. 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.

Review: As wise as it is compact, travelling at great speed through difficult terrain to a sensible conclusion. -- Daniel Finkelstein * Times *

As a primer on the big political shift of our times, and an explainer of how we got here, this is not a book to pass by -- Andrew Marr * Sunday Times *

Sweeping and ambitious -- Nesrine Malik * Prospect *

A useful primer on an important subject -- David Goodhart * Literary Review *

Praise for Origins of Political Order: 'Fukuyama remains as prominent as ever' * Financial Times *

Praise for The Origins of Political Order: It should be read by every democrat - and every dictator. -- Dominic Lawson

Fukuyama writes clear prose and is a pleasure to read. * The Times *