Excellent book: Universality and Identity Politics

It’s difficult to do the book justice in short summaries, primarily because he develops his arguments over time, and I’ve noticed that these developments sometimes overturn what I assumed he meant at earlier points along the way. He cites and quotes dozens of key thinkers to build his case, left, right and center, so I’d bet you’d eventually be on the same page — regarding the possible strawman and much else.

Anyway, your quote, I’m guessing, comes from the book blurb which I posted. It reads in full:

The great political ideas and movements of the modern world were founded on a promise of universal emancipation. But in recent decades, much of the Left has grown suspicious of such aspirations. Critics see the invocation of universality as a form of domination or a way of speaking for others, and have come to favor a politics of particularism — often derided as “identity politics.” Others, both centrists and conservatives, associate universalism with twentieth-century totalitarianism and hold that it is bound to lead to catastrophe.

This book develops a new conception of universality that helps us rethink political thought and action. Todd McGowan argues that universals such as equality and freedom are not imposed on us. They emerge from our shared experience of their absence and our struggle to attain them. McGowan reconsiders the history of Nazism and Stalinism and reclaims the universalism of movements fighting racism, sexism, and homophobia.

He demonstrates that the divide between Right and Left comes down to particularity versus universality. Despite the accusation of identity politics directed against leftists, every emancipatory political project is fundamentally a universal one — and the real proponents of identity politics are the right wing. Through a wide range of examples in contemporary politics, film, and history, Universality and Identity Politics offers an antidote to the impasses of identity and an inspiring vision of twenty-first-century collective struggle.

Right now, am in a very interesting section about BLM and the reactionary response to that . . . McGowan makes a great case for the former being universalist, and the latter, particularist, which echoes back to an earlier section on the Haitian Revolution.

Basically, the conservative accusation that the left is mired in “identity politics” is a projection/confession scenario. McGowan sees “identity politics” as fundamentally a right-wing project, the term misused, misapplied, etc. etc.

Identity formation needs external limits and “othering” to various degrees. When it hits the point of identity politics, it needs enemies. A true “universalist” project can’t have them. Potential converts, yes. Enemies, no. That’s another way McGowan thinks the left and right are so different.

More anon . . .

Just finished it.

So many lights went on throughout the reading process. But I think I must be getting old, because in each moment, I thought I’d remember all the insights and details, the thinkers mentioned, the rationales, retain these moments, but I really haven’t. Should have taken notes!!

And it’s not that long a book!

Anyway, he’s definitely on Team Leftist. Very strong critique of capitalism, which he eviscerates. He knows his Marx, too, it would appear, and the Frankfurt School as well. Seems to be a friend of Zizek’s, and speaks highly of Alain Badiou and the Fields sisters, among others. Too many citations to list. Good notes, references, websites, etc

Gonna try to contact him for my own website. He teaches at the University of Vermont. Maybe Nittany knows him?