Why read In the Name of Identity?

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

Book description

“Makes for compelling reading in America today.”—New York Times Book Review.

“I want to try and understand why so many people commit crimes in the name of identity,” writes Amin Maalouf. Identity is the crucible out of which we come: our background, our race, our gender, our tribal affiliations, our…

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Why read it?

1 author picked In the Name of Identity as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Uzi Rabi

Author

In the Name of Identity challenges our thinking about how we decide who we are as individuals, as groups and what makes us behave as we do with each other.

Maalouf addresses the dangers of defining people solely on a singular component of their identity rather than their identity as a whole. He examines his own identity, and acknowledges that it is complex.

He is Arab and Christian, both Lebanese and French. Yet his identity is more than the aggregate of these components. He urges the reader to avoid generalizing based on a singular component of one’s identity and convincingly…

From Uzi's list on The best books about political identity and divisions.