{"title":"Books by Yascha Mounk","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781526630155","title":"The Great Experiment","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e* SELECTED FOR BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING LIST 2022 *\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Anyone interested in the future of liberal democracy should read this book'\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eANNE APPLEBAUM\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of our most important political thinkers looks to the greatest challenge of our time: how to live together equally and peacefully in diverse democracies.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s easy to be pessimistic about the fate of democracy in multi-ethnic societies. At the end of the Second World War, fewer than one in twenty-five people living in the UK were born abroad; now it is one in seven. The history of humankind is a story of us versus them, and the project of diverse democracies is a relatively new one – it is, in other words, a great experiment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow do identity groups with different ideologies and beliefs live together? Is it possible to embark on a democracy with shared values if our values are at odds?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYascha Mounk argues that group identity is both deeply rooted and malleable. No community is beyond conciliation: groups are moving towards cooperation across the world. \u003ci\u003eThe Great Experiment\u003c\/i\u003e offers a profound understanding of the problem behind all our other problems, and genuine hope for our capacity to solve it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128680906930,"sku":"9781526630155","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781526630155.jpg?v=1786022042"},{"product_id":"9781802062861","title":"The Identity Trap","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A fascinating account of the intellectual origins of identity politics' \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe origins, consequences and limitations of an ideology that has quickly become highly influential around the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor much of their history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. It is no surprise then that many who passionately believe in social justice have come to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity if they are to resist injustice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minorities has transformed into an obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology - which Yascha Mounk terms the 'identity synthesis' - seeks to put each citizen's matrix of identities at the heart of social, cultural and political life. This, he argues, is \u003ci\u003eThe Identity Trap\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMounk traces the intellectual origin of these ideas. He tells the story of how they were able to win tremendous power over the past decade. And he makes a nuanced case why their application to areas from education to public policy is proving to be deeply counterproductive. In his passionate plea for universalism and humanism, he argues that the proponents of identitarian ideas will, though they may be full of good intentions, make it harder to achieve progress towards genuine equality.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44582886736050,"sku":"9781802062861","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781802062861_0968d019-4981-40cb-a2a6-b4ebd0b10939.jpg?v=1786026856"},{"product_id":"9780674237681","title":"The People vs. Democracy – Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It","description":"A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice“Everyone worried about the state of contemporary politics should read this book.”—Anne-Marie Slaughter“A trenchant survey from 1989, with its democratic euphoria, to the current map of autocratic striving.”—David Remnick, New YorkerThe world is in turmoil. From Russia and Turkey across Europe to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power as two core components of liberal democracy—individual rights and the popular will—are increasingly at war. As the role of money in politics has soared, a system of “rights without democracy” has taken hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of “democracy without rights.” Yascha Mounk offers a clear and trenchant analysis of what ails our democracy and what it will take to get it back on track.   “Democracy is going through its worst crisis since the 1930s… But what exactly is the nature of this crisis? And what is driving it? The People vs. Democracy stands out in a crowded field for the quality of its answers to these questions.”—The Economist“Brilliant… As this superb book makes clear, we need both the liberal framework and the democracy, and bringing them back together is the greatest challenge of our time.”—Los Angeles Times“Extraordinary…provides a clear, concise, persuasive, and insightful account of the conditions that made liberal democracy work—and how the breakdown in those conditions is the source of the current crisis of democracy around the world.”—The Guardian","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294050038133,"sku":"9780674237681","price":18.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674237681_52b5d625-88e2-41c0-a0ef-d1110c870096.jpg?v=1786015125"},{"product_id":"the-dispensable-human","title":"The Dispensable Human","description":"We have never been here before. Analogies to industrialization, electrification or the internet are fine and well, but never have so many different forms of knowledge work been threatened at the same time at such scale. Once upon a time, the relative scarcity of the very forms of highly skilled labour now most threatened by artificial intelligence created the heart of the middle class as we know it. If the forces accelerating income inequality before AI amounted to a Category 1 hurricane, now the storm is Category 3 or 4, and we’re quickly headed to Category 5. The Dispensable Human makes vivid the profound impact of AI on the so-called professional class, and on the world of labour as a whole.   Leading political scientist Yascha Mounk takes us to the front lines of institutional transformation and the cutting of edge of robotics, showing us the revolutionary impact we now face. With characteristic depth of field, he brings into focus our hard-won political freedoms have become imperilled, and how democracy itself is weakened by the weakening of the middle class. He shows us how AI further erodes the the substrate that supports liberty by stoking cynicism, diminishing confidence in a shared truth, and giving despots unprecedented tools for surveillance and social control. Further, just as entry into the highest status professional vocations has become a source of identity and community, the path to that charmed circle is radically narrowing. The result will be many more frustrated aspirants and a potential wholesale collapse in civilizational morale.   But this dire vision is not inevitable. The Dispensable Human offers clear-eyed prescriptions to avoid the worse-case outcomes. They all will require hard choices, and considerable collective will; nothing about this is going to be easy. But whatever your perspective on the politics, this book makes an irrefutable case that denial is not a very clever option.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57613167427957,"sku":"9780241849231","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-yascha-mounk.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}