Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy [Hardcover]

Natan Sharansky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2008

Who is better prepared to confront challenges and defend principles in a volatile modern world? Those with strong national, religious, ethnic, or tribal identities who accept democracy, or democrats who renounce identity as a kind of divisive prejudice?

Natan Sharansky, building on his personal experience as a dissident, argues that valueless cosmopolitanism, even in democracies, is dangerous. Better to have hostile identities framed by democracy than democrats indifferent to identity.

In a vigorous, insightful challenge to the left and right alike, Natan Sharansky, as he has proved repeatedly, is at the leading edge of the issues that frame our times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sharansky compellingly argues that distinct group identities within a culture are an essential part of a successful democracy and that attempts to bleach out or deny identity can have catastrophic results. Much of his argument is shaped and funneled through his experience as a political prisoner in the Soviet gulags and later as a citizen and activist in Israel. Though one is inclined to ask if Sharansky means anything more with his usage of identity than religion, he still makes clear points about contemporary Jewish and Muslim identity. His most intriguing discussions center on the postidentity crisis that many of the developed nations find themselves facing. Stefan Rudnicki's deep voice enables a stronger foreboding tone for Sharansky's words. His light use of accents for quotes provides context without exaggeration. Most important, Rudnicki patiently works through the text with shifting emphasis and pauses to allow for listener understanding during the more cerebral elements of Sharansky's writings. A Perseus hardcover. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

"Washington Times," July, 25, 2008
"The Democratic Party's hopeful savior, Barack Obama, has made it clear that he will draw a sharp distinction between himself and John McCain through his approach to foreign policy and his emphasis on diplomacy and multi-nationalism. His commitment to restoring America's image and withdrawing from Iraq makes him the preferred candidate for much of Western Europe, and much of the world for that matter. However, Barack Obama's lead in world public opinion polls is something John McCain should highlight and embrace, rather than resist.

If Mr. McCain finds this strategy flawed, he should read Natan Sharansky's latest book, "Defending Identity," which discusses the crucial distinctions between the United States and much of the world, including the European bloc. Mr. Sharansky, a Jewish former Soviet dissident who spent years in the gulags for trying to hold the Soviet Union accountable to its international human-rights commitments, explains as his central thesis that identity without democracy is totalitarianism, but democracy without identification to the larger community is weak and doomed to fail."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158648513X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586485139
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.9 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Importance of the Nation-State June 24, 2008

By Allen Roth

Format:Hardcover

Natan Sharansky's latest book, Defending Identity, is a compelling defense of the national and cultural characteristics of people everywhere. At a time when the Nation-State is giving way to international, regional institutions (like the United Nations and The European Union), and the concept of globalization, Sharansky argues that the cultural and religious identities of people are of paramount importance for a civil world.

Some will dismiss his thesis for being out of step with the march of history, but the recent vote of the Irish to reject the proposed Constitution of the European Union argues that there is still quite a bit of life in the "old" idea of people forming groups around entities for reasons other than political ones. It is no secret that the current British Government has refused to put the "constitution" to a vote of a British people because it would lose to maintaining national sovereignty.

Sharansky's previous book The Case For Democracy had a great influence on American foreign policy this book will hopefully also impact the world. Elites tend to underestimate the influence of national, ethnic, and religious differences. Sharansky, based in part on his experiences as a dissident, explains why the elites are wrong, one more time.

The book is informative and provocative. Its worth buying, reading, and discussing.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for leaders everywhere. June 30, 2008

By Maurie Rosenberg

Format:Hardcover

Mr. Sharansky has offered us the benefit of his unique life experience and ability to debunk one of life's great sophistries. Like matches are somehow the cause of arson, or poverty is the cause of terrorism, we make the simplistic mistake of linking identity or even nationalism with negativity and try to blur the bright colors of ethnic and cultural diversity into some homogenous fog. He shows us with compelling clarity that within the context of a democratic rule of law that identity is not only valuable and desirable but crucial for the defense of the only form of government that is capable of accommodating diverse interests against the true imperialism and missionary imperative of those who want to destroy it.
We should have gratitude for his insights and encourage its reading to those who are interested in a better understanding of these dynamics and it should be required reading those in leadership positions everywhere.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Convincing position and well thought out! July 30, 2008

By L. King

Format:Hardcover

The first half of the book covers the period while he was a prisoner of conscience in the Soviet Union. he State sought to control the people by suppressing diversity. The pressure inside the prisons to give in to the interogators was, in his view, only countered by a strong sense of identity. Sharanksy came to the point of view that the essence of the dissident movement was in a common desire to respect and encourage distinct identities rather than be sublimated by the State. He describes forging alliances between different groups such as Pentecostals, Latvian Nationalist and Zionists based on respect for each other's identities. He also has kind words for the firmness and support of the cause of freedom by President Ronald Reagan.

Of note, Sharansky relates that when he was released the guards told him that he had to leave immediately and in his prison clothes. He refused saying he would only leave in a dignified fashion in normal street clothes - a move copied by the terrorist Samir Kuntar when he was released from an Israeli prison.

The second half of the book covers the period in Israel when Sharansky was in government and twice resigned from a ministerial position. Here too the importance of identity is covered where he sees that Arafat and the Palestinians actively sought to attack Israel's Jewish identity by not only demanding the temple mount but by denying (against all historical evidence) that the 1st and 2nd Temple were in Jerusalem.

I cannot help but feel that this book was heavily influenced by the essay by Ze'ev Maghen, "Imagine: On Love and Lennon" in the book New Essays on Zionism published last year in which Sharansky was also published. Like Maghen, Sharansky picks on the seductive words of Lennon's "Imagine" and its picturing of a world without identity, but also without anything to live for as well. (Love the song, but Lennon's dystopia is now somewhat unnerving.)

Originally I was going to give the book a 5 star rating - but I was so impressed that I ran out and read his previous book The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror - which was even better.

On the political side Sharansky is definitely a man to watch and listen to, especially given the leadership contest that has begun in Israel. It is possibly that he has permanently moved on from politician to pundit, but it is also possibly that he may be pulled in once more into a ministerial role, with an outside possibility of something higher.