The Revolutionary Road to Me: Identity Politics and the Western Left

How can the left be credible when it can’t decide what a woman is? How can antiracists fight for equality if they promote fictions about race? If identity politics is the answer, why are so many Western left organizations being damaged by it?

As the culture wars rage, this compelling book examines why much of the Western political left has foundered because of identity politics. Identity issues have mired many good organizations in intractable conflicts and deflected them from their purpose. In ignoring poverty and inequality, the Western left has lost its way. Meanwhile, powerful social movements from the past - black, women’s, gay, and lesbian - are reduced to corporate slogans.

Attuned to the needs of activists and academics, this book offers intelligent explanations for how we got here. It examines serious problems with antiracism, transgender rights activism, and the work of LGBTQ+ groups. In showing how identities are outcomes of social and institutional forces, it argues that technofinancial capitalism uses identity politics to mould new labour processes for the Western middle class while accelerating economic inequality. Clearing a path through the vagaries of identity politics, the book offers arguments the Western left must face amidst formidable far-right and right-wing authoritarianism, climate emergency, and severe inequalities.

Chetan Bhatt is Professor of Sociology at LSE.