Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
About this audiobook
Natan Sharansky believes that the challenge of the twenty-first century is to assert our cultural, ethnic, or religious identities, a struggle that has never been more important than now.
Who is better prepared to defend principles in a volatile world? Is it those with strong national, religious, ethnic, or tribal identities who accept democracy, or democrats who view identity as a divisive prejudice? Sharansky argues that valueless cosmopolitanism is dangerous, even in democracies. Together, identity and democracy assert a powerful and benign sense of purpose, but when at odds, they beget fundamentalism and rootlessness.
About the author
Natan Sharansky, writer, former Soviet dissident, and former deputy prime minister of Israel, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1986 for his struggles against tyranny. He is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center, heading its strategic studies institute, and is president of Beit Hatefutsot, the Jewish diaspora museum.
Shira Wolosky is professor of English and American literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; previously, she was associate professor of English at Yale University. She received her PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University in 1980 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001. Wolosky is the author of a number of books and articles, including Emily Dickinson: A Voice of War, Language Mysticism: The Negative Way of Language in Eliot, Beckett, and Celan, The Art of Poetry, Major Voices: Nineteenth Century American Women’s Poetry, and many others.
Ron Dermer, a native of Florida, worked in Israel as a political consultant and as a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and son.
Emily Janice Card (a.k.a. Emily Rankin) is an actor, writer, and singer. In addition to being a narrator, she has directed numerous audiobooks, including the 2007 Audie and Earphones Award winner Hubris, Legacy of Ashes by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, and Them by Nathan McCall. Her own audiobook narration has won her four Earphones Awards.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.
