Waubonsee Community College

Identity, the necessity of a modern idea, Gerald Izenberg

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 499-516) and index

index present

non fiction

Identity

bibliography

927401374

Gerald Izenberg

Intellectual history of the modern age

the necessity of a modern idea

Identity: The necessity of a modern idea' is the first comprehensive history of identity as the answer to the question, "who, or what, am I?" It covers the century from the end of World War I, when identity in this sense first became an issue for writers and philosophers, to 2010, when European political leaders declared multiculturalism a failure just as Canada, which pioneered it, was hailing its success. Along the way the book examines Erik Erikson's concepts of psychological identity and identity crisis, which made the word famous; the turn to collective identity and the rise of identity politics in Europe and America; varieties and theories of group identity; debates over accommodating collective identities within liberal democracy; the relationship between individual and group identity; the postmodern critique of identity as a concept; and the ways it nonetheless transformed the social sciences and altered our ideas of ethics

The new "discourse of identity -- Identity becomes an issue: European literature between the World Wars -- The ontological critique of identity: Heidegger and Sartre -- Identity becomes a word: Erik Erikson and psychological identity -- Social identity and the birth of identity politics, 1945-1970 -- Collective identities and their agendas, 1970-2000 -- The practical politics of national and multicultural identity: Germany, France, Canada, and the United States, 1970-2010 -- The problem of collective identity in liberal democracy -- The contradictions of postmodern identity -- Identity transforms the social sciences -- The kinds of kinds: explaining collective identity -- Identity as an ethical issue -- The necessity of identity