In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong

The topic of this book is as meaningful today as it was 20 or so years ago when it was written. This continued relevance would be something the author would detest. In a stunning closure the author reveals the desire for the matters he discusses to become so well understood that a book on the subject would become a simple tautology. He wants his book to become irrelevant soon.
As it stands, the book touches the raw nerve of our times. What is an identity of a human being? Is it the language of childhood, the religious beliefs, the community a person belongs to, the color of skin, or the choice of a profession? The correct answer is none of the above and all of the above (and more) at the same time. The main premise is that in normal show more times, when individual values shine in all their complex variety no two identities are alike. In times of crisis, war, a real or perceived attack on a part of our complex identities, one part is inflated, consumes other parts and becomes the driving force of our actions. It gives birth to antagonism and hatred.
This is a simple statement of affairs, the question is how to avoid such polarizing reactions in our increasingly global society? And the answer lies in the original claim of the complex nature of our unique identities. A person who cherishes the multifaceted nature of his/her identity is less likely to become carried away by a sweepingly simplifying political slogan or a crude interpretation of a religious duty. Are we not responsible ourselves for building up our identities in a way that the core principles are the humanistic values that cannot be pushed aside by some imposed agenda? show less

Je ne pense pas que j'ai pris suffisamment de temps auparavant pour explorer la notion d'identité et à quelle point elle peut être à la fois simple et complexe. Mais cela a changé après avoir lu ce livre. Amin Maalouf réussit dans cet éssai remarquable à étudier et en quelques sortes simplifier la notion d'identité tout en soulignant qu'il n'y a pas d'identité majeure, mais, qu'au contraire, c'est nos appartenances multiples qui definissent notre identité. Il démontre aussi comment certains problèmes identitaires causent des problèmes majeures allant, parfois, jusqu'à des massacres ethniques.

"Pour ce livre, qui n’est ni un divertissement ni une œuvre littéraire, je formulerai le vœu inverse : que mon petit-fils,

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devenu homme, le découvrant un jour par hasard dans la bibliothèque familiale, le feuillette, le parcoure un peu, puis le remette aussitôt à l’endroit poussiéreux d’où il l’avait retiré, en haussant les épaules, et en s’étonnant que du temps de son grand-père, on eût encore besoin de dire ces choses-là."

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This started off so powerfully but I felt like it kind of petered out by the end. I felt like he never made the case as clearly as he wanted to make, that by forcing people to cling to a singular identity, you also paved the way to violence. Many beautiful and thoughtful passage though that are relevant to thing happening in the world today.

A slowly, surely built essay on one of the most important issues of our time: the way identity has given rise to the kinds of violence that lead to war and division. This prescient pre-September 11th book deserves a wide audience.

I agree entirely with Joel's views posted in item 2 (below? above?): the book's theme--with the _many_ detailed aspects in which it is examined by Maalouf's careful analysis-- _is_ indeed, as Joel writes, "one of the most important issues of our time".

I'd argue, going further, that unless one reads Maalouf's essays or some other's version of them, though I know of no other writer who does quite the same thing as Maalouf in his book ---and I just finished his newest on the topic, "Le dérèglement du monde" (which very loosely translates as "The world gone mad")---one cannot clearly comprehend the true character of much of the social and political trends of our times. His views place so _much_ about our times into a clarifying context show more which, all the same, does not oversimplify but, instead, enriches an understanding of numerous elements by showing their common relationships to a larger "whole".

When you have read the book, and, if you are fortunate, his latest one as well, you'll understand far more and far better the many otherwise bewildering things going on around the world today. There's a simple and not-so-obvious reason for that: a great deal of today's momentous social and political issues are inextricably bound up with the complicated matter of how people, as individuals and as communities, nations and states, see and define themselves---that is to say, what they view as their "identity".

A brilliant book which deserves wide and long consideration and discussion. Societies everywhere shall continue to suffer greatly and needlessly until they better grasp the insights which Maalouf offers us here. show less

A fine essay by the French-Lebanese author about present day problems of belonging and exclusion in human societies.

I don't know what I was expecting from this book, but I didn't get it. I mean, it was easy to read and I could see his point. But there was nothing earth shattering about it.