Impassioned and timely, this superbly written polemic by Mark Lilla based on his viral New York Times article argues that focusing on identity has failed the democratic party and offers a road map for a new kind of politics.

"This book is a polemic. It is written by a centrist American liberal stunned and outraged by the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. And it has been written out of anger."

The election of Trump marks the end of an era, argues LIlla, a respected Columbia professor and public intellectual. The political worldview defined by Ronald Reagan that has dominated the American political landscape for nearly four decades is over. On the right, conservatives must now grapple with the fact that a rhetoric of individual initiative and minimal government has given way to thoughtless populist demagoguery. On the left, liberals must reckon with an equally hard truth: Identity Politics has failed.

Driven by a sincere desire to...