Combining insights from evolutionary psychology with a broad sweep through history, down to the ideological civil war ripping the United States apart, the book explores the deeper roots of people's inability to accept claims about reality which come from the opposite ideological camp, no matter how valid they might be. After theorists around 1960 proclaimed the 'death of ideology', ideological divides and clashes have reemerged with renewed intensity throughout the world. In the United States they have become particularly venomous. Each side in America's escalating ideological civil war charges the other with concocting 'fake news' and 'alternative facts'. The other side is widely viewed as malicious, irrational or downright stupid, and, often, as barely legitimate. People are deaf to claims about reality that come from the opposite camp, no matter how valid they might be. The zeal of the opposing sides is often scarcely less than that which characterized the religious ideologies of old. Indeed, historical religious ideologies have largely been replaced by 'secular religions' or 'religion substitutes'. Ideology consists of normative prescriptions regarding how society should be shaped, together with an interpretive roadmap indicating how this normative vision can be implemented in reality. Ideological Fixation is the result of tensions and conflicts between these two elements. The book focuses on ideologies' factual claims about the world, typically subordinate to, and often distorted by, their normative commitment. In exploring this phenomenon, the book combines insights from evolutionary psychology regarding the nature of some of our deepest proclivities with a broad sweep through history and around the world. It proceeds from the Stone Age to the rise of civilization, the great religions and modernity, to a critique of fundamental factual premises that underlie some of the major debates dominating today's liberal democracies, not least the United States.

About the Author
Azar Gat is Ezer Weitzman Professor of National Security in the School of Political Science, Government, and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University. He is the author of nine books, including, more recently: A History of Military Thought: From the Enlightenment to the Cold War (Oxford, 2001); War in Human Civilization (Oxford, 2006), named one of the best books of the year by the Times Literary Supplement (TLS); Victorious and Vulnerable: Why Democracy Won in the 20th Century and How it is still Imperiled (2010); Nations: The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nationalism (2013); The Causes of War and the Spread of Peace: But Will War Rebound? (Oxford, 2017); and War and Strategy in the Modern World: From Blitzkrieg to Unconventional Terrorism, (collected articles and essays, 2018). His books have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Greek, Turkish, and Hebrew. He has held visiting positions at Oxford, Yale, Ohio State, Georgetown, Hoover-Stanford, Freiburg, Munich, and Constance. In 2019 he was awarded the EMET Prize in the fields of Political Science and Strategy. Granted under the auspices of the Prime Minister's office, it is considered Israel's highest scholarly prize.

Reviews
Of wide scope, encompassing a range of views, given the potentially divisive subject matter, it still manages to be challenging while not offending. * M. P. Ross, Applied Political Theory *
The power of ideology has become one of the great issues of our day, driving trends in politics, journalism, academia, even science. In this superb and invaluable book, Azar Gat explains both ideology and ideologies: the systems of ideas that have shaped history and continue to shape our world. And no, he is not ideological, but thoroughly erudite, insightful, and judicious * Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of Enlightenment Now and Rationality *
Azar Gat addresses head-on the single most remarkable phenomenon of our time: the return of the wars of religion in everyday political life, whereby adversaries are viewed as embodiments of absolute evil who must be utterly silenced as Catholics and Lutherans once did to each other. In Europe, political parties proliferate to vent incompatible views, in the US rival media ignore each others' news. What many others deplore, Azar Gat explains, bringing much needed clarity * Edward N Luttwak, author of Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace *
The title doesn't do this book justice. A brilliant vademecum, it traverses 2,500 years of philosophy, political theory and ideology-all those Great Books in one. Subtly and gently, Gat demolishes the ideological verities of our day- postmodernism, 'wokeism', and all. 'Dare to know', as Kant had it: question, gainsay, and don't confuse ideology with truth. When in doubt, go with the Enlightenment * Josef Joffe, Johns Hopkins and Stanford University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780197646700
Author Azar Gat
Format Hardback
Page Count 360
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 622g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 166mm * 28mm