Overview

The toppling of statues in the name of anti-racism is disconcerting, as is the violence sometimes displayed towards others in the name of gender equality. The emancipation movements of the past seem to have undergone a subtle transformation: the struggle now is not so much to bring about progress but rather to denounce offenses, express indignation, and assert identities, sometimes in order to demand recognition. The individual’s commitment to self-definition and self-appreciation, understood as the exercise of a sovereign right, has become a distinctive sign of our time. Elisabeth Roudinesco takes us into the darker corners of identity thinking, where conspiracy theories, rejection of the other, and incitement to violence are often part of the mix. But she also points to several paths that could lead us away from despair and toward a possible world in which everyone can adhere to the principle according to which “I am myself, that’s all there is to it” without denying the diversity of human communities or essentializing either universality or difference. This bold and courageous interrogation of identity politics will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the state of our world today.

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9781509551231

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Reviews

In this profoundly compelling and exceptionally far-reaching book, Elisabeth Roudinesco ruthlessly exposes the benighted logic behind the emancipatory countenance of contemporary identity politics. Fierce, fearless, and forward-looking, she reclaims the legitimate right to an open debate in a world in which people's desperate search for a redemptive identity has elicited new forms of intellectual, social, and ideological violence. I expect this book to create a storm, which will not only be perfect, but totally unavoidable and absolutely necessary. Dany Nobus, Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychology, Brunel University London Roudinesco's book makes an important, timely, and courageous contribution to the vexed issue of identity politics. Debunking ideologies that take 'his majesty the ego' as a weapon, her book shows concretely how the truth of the political subject emerges where identity fails. This is the work of a true historian, while touching the nerve of crucial debates of our present times. Jean-Michel Rabate, University of Pennsylvania and American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Author Information

Elisabeth Roudinesco is Professor of History at the University of Paris

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