as doctor fukuyama said, identity politics are not all bad. we've experienced changes in workplace behavior in the way policing is done, many of which flow from responses to this cry for justice and respect for the inherent dignity of groups of people. but i think what's especially damaging today is the way in which our identity politics have become tribal. we are more joiners than we are and we join these abstract tribes in ways that today i think are particularly threatening for the ongoing projects of american democracy. it's the proliferation of tribalism i want to talk about a little bit and think about what to do about it. in 1752 the scottish writer david hume wrote an essay in which he talked about the emergence in modern times of the politics of principle, parties of principle in contrast to parties of interest. if you're in a seafaring town, your politics are rooted in the way of life that you have what you noticed this thing going on in modern politics that he called artese of principle. he was probably speaking of the word principl

with us now is francis fukuyama, a fellow at stanford university.y much for coming in. give us a definition of identity politics. identity has to do with this feeling that you have an inner worth, often connected to your membership in a group. that is not being adequately respected or disregarded by the surrounding society. it draws you into politics because you want people to recognise you and to accord you the dignity and respect you think you are worth. that sounds like it can be a fine thing in the politicalfield. the problem, it seems to me, comes when people in different identity groups see the other groups as a threat. that is a problem. if you think your identity depends on the hostility to other groups, or if you think your differences what needs to be recognised rather than what you hold in common, for example, with other citizens in a democratic society, that becomes very problematic. how are you arguing that identity politics can be a good thing? first of all, identity is a fluid concept. we can shift identities. they tend to get smaller

eastern, stanford university professor francis fukuyama talks about his book "identity: the demand forignity and the politics of resentment." >> that's the nice thing about identity. it doesn't have to be fixed. it doesn't have to be based on biology. it can be shaped by leaders, by school, by education, by the way we talk about our shared history and our shared values. and i think that's an important task that lies ahead of us. >> and on sunday, at 9:00 p.m. eastern, on afterwords, emory university african-american studies chair, carol anderson, discusses her book, "one person, no vote." how voter suppression is destroying our democracy. she's interviewed by democratic congressman jamie raskin. >> it's been extremely contested and it's been violently challenged at many points, right. >> yes, absolutely. so -- and one of the things i talk about is that america is really an aspirational nation. and it's in those aspirations, we, the people, we hold these truths to be self-evident. leader of the free world. those kinds of aspirations. it's based on those aspirations and not those kind of

fukuyama. and i think that's an important task that lies ahead of us. >> and on sunday 9:00 p.m. african americans chair carol anderson discusses her book, one person, no vote. how voter suppression is destroying our democracy. she's interviewed by jamie raskin of maryland. >> when you look at right to vote, it's been extremely contested and violently ch challenged at any points. >> yes. absolutely. one of the things i talk about is america is really an aspirational nation, in it's that we the people hold the truths to be self-evident. leader of the free world. those kinds of aspirations. based on those aspirations and not those kind of hard corey alts where people have fought in order to gain access to their citizenship rights. >> watch this weekend on c-span2 book tv. >> the c-span bus was recently in honolulu, hawaii for the 39th stop of our 50 capitals tour. join us next weekend, october 6th and 7th as we feature our visit to hawaii on c-span book tv and american history tv. exploring hawaii's history and culture as well as public policy issues facing the state. next saturday

so, that's yascha, and i think the club will recognize our moderator tonight, francis fukuyama, who hasany times before. he's currently a senior fellow at stanford's freeman spogli institute for international studies and his new book on identity, his "identity politics" will be coming out in september. so, thank you very much, francis. thank you very much. ok, thank you.

and we wrap up our prime time programming at 11 eastern with francis fukuyama's thoughts on how to move past identity politics and return to civil discourse. that all happens tonight on c-span2's booktv. 48 hours of nonfiction be authors and books -- the nonfiction authors and books every weekend. television for serious readers. a reminder that this weekend's full schedule is available on our web site, booktv.org. >>> and now here's matthew hennessey discussing generation x. >> so this book started out as a city journal article. i don't know if you know that. it was first on the web site as a little bitty article, then it was a longer article, so i have to thank brian for allowing me to develop the idea. and i want to thank paul for listening to me rail about things like the universal basic income and the amazon echo in his office before any of it had any hopes of becoming a book. and i also want to thank my friends at encounter for giving me the opportunity the, of course. i know that a lot of you probably attended the james w. wilson lecture a few weeks ago in which harvard professor

fukuyama's remarks and this book. the phenomenon of our tribalistic predispositions which i think is creating this framework where our identities are becoming so divisive today. not all identity politics are bad. we have experienced changes in workplace behavior, many of which flow from responses to this call and cry for justice to respect the inherent dignity of specific groups of people. but i think what's especially damaging today is the way in which our identity politics has become tribal. we're really more joiners than we are splitters. and we join these abstract tribes in ways that today i think are particularly threatening for the ongoing project of american democracy. it's the proliferation of abstract tribalism that i want to talk about for a little bit here. in 1752, there was an essay written in which it was talked about emergence in modern times about politics of principle, parties of principle, in contrast to parties of interest. if you're in a town or out on a farm, your politics are very much rooted in