Vexed

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What to expect

Across the democratic West, politics has become deeply polarised and profoundly personal. Challenge someone’s political views and increasingly you challenge their very being.

And yet, do our political tribes even make sense? Look carefully, and on the most important ethical issues of the age – assisted dying, social welfare, sexual liberation, abortion, gun control, the environment, technology, justice – the instinctive positions of both the Left and the Right are riven with contradictions.

In this refreshing and eye-opening book, James Mumford, a public thinker and independent commentator, questions the basic assumptions of our political groups. His challenge is simple: ‘Why should believing strongly about one topic mean the automatic adoption of so many others?’

Vexed is an essential and provocative account that will appeal to anyone of independent thought, and a welcome call for new reflection on the moral issues most relevant to our modern way of life.

Critics Review

  • Mumford demonstrates an admirable ability to zero in on things too often missing from political conversations … A plea for nuance and ambivalence, in a world that often seems to be in danger of mislaying both.

    Observer

  • James Mumford has written the most intriguing and original reflection on political tribalism that I have ever read … Vexed is an intellectual page-turner.

    author of The Road to Somewhere: The New Tribes Shaping British Politics

  • Mumford is a subtle, supple and frequently ingenious thinker. His style is abrasive enough to make readers sit up when needed, but never enough to make us feel as if we are being hectored or bullied … A memorable and illuminating assault on what happens when ideology shuts down thought.

    Catholic Herald

  • A thought-provoking exploration of some of the most contentious problems of our time

    Sunday Times

  • An important contribution to understanding the polarization of our global politics from one of the most exciting young ethicists working today

    James Davison Hunter, Labrosse-Levenson Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia and author of Culture Wars

  • Lively, well argued … help[s] us understand aspects of tribalism

    Financial Times

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