How can the left be credible when it can’t decide what a woman is? How can antiracists fight for equality if they promote fictions about race? If identity politics is the answer, why are so many Western left organisations being damaged by it?
As the culture wars rage, this compelling book examines why much of the Western political left has foundered because of identity politics. Identity issues have mired many good organisations in intractable conflicts and deflected them from their purpose. In ignoring poverty and inequality, the Western left has lost its way. Meanwhile, powerful social movements from the past – black, women’s, gay and lesbian – are reduced to corporate slogans.
Attuned to the needs of activists and academics, this book offers intelligent explanations for how we got here. It examines serious problems with antiracism, transgender rights activism, and the work of LGBTQ+ groups. In showing how identities are outcomes of social and institutional forces, it argues that technofinancial capitalism uses identity politics to mould new labour processes for the Western middle class while accelerating economic inequality. Clearing a path through the vagaries of identity politics, the book offers arguments the Western left must face amidst formidable far-right and right-wing authoritarianism, climate emergency and severe inequalities.
By:
Chetan Bhatt
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 231mm,
Width: 157mm,
Spine: 21mm
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9781509565184
ISBN 10: 1509565183
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 03 February 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Acknowledgements Chapter 1: The Heat of Identity Chapter 2: The Self, the Group, and Identity Politics Chapter 3: Identitarian Technocracy and the Liberal Middle Class Chapter 4: The Queer Empire and Post-Truth Politics Chapter 5: Proximate, Immediate, Emotional: Identitarian Antiracism Chapter 6: Culture, Identity, and Antiracism Chapter 7: Diminishing Utopias Notes Index
Chetan Bhatt is Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory at LSE.
Reviews for The Revolutionary Road to Me: Identity Politics and the Western Left
""This book provides a nuanced and clear-headed insight into debates about identity politics in the world around us. Bhatt’s strident intervention seeks to make readers rethink this whole issue."" Professor John Solomos, University of Warwick ""Reading Chetan Bhatt’s book is like watching a skilled surgeon dissect a diseased body. He exposes the neoliberal, economic and regulatory conditions in which a particular type of left wing identity politics has thrived within our institutions to devastating illiberal effects. What is so welcome about this book is that the narrative does not get bogged down in rehearsing the requisite academic literature – rather the prose, the diagnosis, the argument and analysis is driven by the careful use of examples. This is a must read."" Jo Phoenix, University of Reading
