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Loading... Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?by Gary Younge
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   )1   elkiedee | Jun 3, 2010 | 
 "The more power an identity carries, the less likely its carrier is to be aware of it as an identity at all," Younge notes. "Because their identity is never interrogated they are easily seduced by the idea that they do not have one." Among the great merits of Younge's book is that he reminds us – and them – of the falseness of that assertion. There are few journalists better equipped to navigate this territory than Younge, not only because of his experience as a foreign correspondent for this newspaper but because his own biography demonstrates the fluid nature of identity. In the book he weaves his own story – the working-class son of a single mother from Barbados, who was raised in Stevenage and now lives in the United States – with powerful reportage from across the globe that reveals the changing nature of identity. Awards
"As borders vanish, more people travel, cultures mingle, and communications across continents become easier, aren't relations between people supposed to be getting less fraught? Why then are people retreating into the refuges of religion, nationality, race, and region? In France the Roma are deported en masse, in Italy Prime Minister Berlusconi has called undocumented workers an 'army of evil' and in Oklahoma, where Muslims are only 0.2 percent of the population, 70 percent of Oklahomans voted to ban the introduction of Sharia Law...Younge demonstrates that how we define ourselves deeply matters: identity often determines whom we elect to public office; informs the choices we make for safety and often figures prominently in the decision to go to war...'Who Are We?' shows how identity shapes our personal and political worlds...Brilliantly observed, witty, and deeply impassioned, "Who Are We' urges us to halt this retreat, to search for common higher ground, or to be prepared to see a society more dangerously divided than ever..."--Dust jacket flap. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)302.4Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Interaction Social interaction between groupsLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.33)
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