For much of history, societies have ostracized and oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It’s no surprise that many who believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice.
But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups has transformed into a counterproductive obsession with group identity, in all its forms. This, Yascha Mounk argues, is the identity trap. In his latest book of the same name, Mounk makes the case for why the application of these ideas – from education to public policy – is proving to be so deeply counterproductive, and why more universal and humanist values can better serve the vital goal of true equality.
Yascha Mounk is a writer and academic known for his work on the rise of populism and the crisis of liberal democracy. He is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, host of the podcast “The Good Fight,” and the author of The Great Experiment. He received his PhD in government from Harvard University and is a professor of the practice of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University.
