Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (Issues of Our Time)

“One of the few world intellectuals on whom we may rely to make sense out of our existential confusion.”―Nadine Gordimer

In this sweeping philosophical work, Amartya Sen proposes that the murderous violence that has riven our society is driven as much by confusion as by inescapable hatred. Challenging the reductionist division of people by race, religion, and class, Sen presents an inspiring vision of a world that can be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward brutality and war.

Amartya Sen is a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University. A former Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, he won the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1998 and the National Humanities Medal in 2011. His many celebrated books include Development as Freedom and The Idea of Justice.