Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama

This is one of very few books I will choose to reread. It is hard to summarize because it covers so much territory. The author discusses the struggle for identity and associated dignity from antiquity through the Trump Administration. Most of the emphasis, however, is on the past three centuries as modern liberal democracies took root and developed.

In early chapters he talks about thymos, the ancient Greek word roughly translated as soul, or at least that part which encompasses feelings of pride, dignity, shame, etc. He develops that into people’s need to feel respected and treated equally both individually and collectively.

Later he explores how that need for respect and equality plays out in social, religious, and political environments. He relates how the need for collective sense of dignity shaped national and ethnic identity. Finally he discusses how real and/or perceived inequities and indignities among subgroups of people within the world’s liberal democracies are sparking the rise of nationalist, racist, and ethnic unrest.