The New Tribes Shaping British Politics

The Road to Somewhere

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018 
 
SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 
 
'A provocative take on the UK's new tribal divisions ... a book whose timing is pitch-perfect' Andrew Marr 
 
Many Remainers reported waking up the day after the Brexit vote feeling as if they were living in a foreign country. In fact, they were merely experiencing the same feeling that many British people have felt every day for years. 
 
 Fifty years ago, people in leafy North London and people in working-class Northern towns could vote for a Labour party that broadly encompassed all of their interests. Today their priorities are poles apart. 
 
 In this groundbreaking and timely book, Goodhart shows us how people have come to be divided into two camps: the 'Anywheres', who have 'achieved' identities, derived from their careers and education, and 'Somewheres', who get their identity from a sense of place and from the people around them, and who feel a sense of loss due to mass immigration and rapid social change. 
 
 In a world increasingly divided by Brexit and Trump, Goodhart shows how Anywheres must come to understand and respect Somewhere values to stand a fighting chance against the rise of populism.

Goodhart offers an impeccably sensible and decent exposition of how the political elites have failed their societies ... The book makes compelling reading both for voters and those who want to get elected by them

[Goodhart] has written a book that is thoughtful, well argued and dangerously moderate. It may even be an incitement to independent thinking

[A] provocative take on the UK's new tribal divisions ... And it broadly works ... The Road to Somewhere has the feel of a book whose timing ... is pitch-perfect

Goodhart's exploration of this underlying divide -- and the question of what might be done -- is not only timely but also offers an accessible, evidence-based and direct account of how these conflicts are reshaping the political world around us

Goodhart has clarity of argument and courage. He has been making these points for a decade and urging the mainstream to engage with them. He does not do fads

Whatever other objections Goodhart's new book might provoke, few could call it irrelevant or untimely ... he returns to this most vexed terrain, picking his way through nettles and thorns that might deter thinner-skinned writers

[Goodhart] has written what may turn out to be the most sympathetic and insightful book about Britain's discontented masses

Mr Goodhart's book seems likely to inform the debate on what post-Brexit Britain should look like

This meticulously researched book ... enables us to imagine Brexit as a moment that could just prove to be the start of a national renewal

David Goodhart offers the best and most complete explanation I've seen for why things seem to be coming apart in so many countries at the same time

Jonathan Haidt, author of 'The Righteous Mind'

David Goodhart is the founding editor of Prospect magazine and one of the most distinctive voices on British politics today. He is currently head of the Demography, Immigration and Integration Unit at the think tank Policy Exchange, and was previously director of the centre-left think tank Demos. His last book 'The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-War Immigration' (2013) was runner-up for the Orwell Prize in 2014 and was a finalist for Political Book of the Year in the Paddy Power Political Book Awards. David voted remain in the EU referendum and has been a mainly inactive member of the Labour Party since he was a student.

Many Remainers reported waking up the day after the Brexit vote feeling as if they were living in a foreign country. In fact, they were merely experiencing the same feeling that many British people have felt every day for years. 
 
 Fifty years ago, people in leafy North London and people in working-class Northern towns could vote for a Labour party that broadly encompassed all of their interests. Today their priorities are poles apart. 
 
 In this groundbreaking and timely book, Goodhart shows us how people have come to be divided into two camps: the 'Anywheres', who have 'achieved' identities, derived from their careers and education, and 'Somewheres', who get their identity from a sense of place and from the people around them, and who feel a sense of loss due to mass immigration and rapid social change. 
 
 In a world increasingly divided by Brexit and Trump, Goodhart shows how Anywheres must come to understand and respect Somewhere values to stand a fighting chance against the rise of populism.

David Goodhart

Utterly compelling ... Goodhart is one of the most important intellectuals in the country, if not Europe. He has consistently been ahead of the curve, no doubt because of his willingness to point out flaws in our liberal consensus before it was fashionable to do so

Brilliant ... a book every MP should read ... The Road to Somewhere has become a classic and I think Head Hand Heart will become a classic too.

Voices the predicament of those whose dream - to live an ordinary, decent life - is often thwarted by a cognitive-obsessed society that disdains those who are not natural exam-passers

Goodhart makes a strong case for reviving the status of work outside the 'knowledge economy', as the age of automation approaches ...  by highlighting dimensions of life and work that have been stripped of prestige in an age of individualism, he performs a valuable service.

Goodhart and his publishers may reflect on the freakishly good fortune of the book's timing ... joins the dots of Britain's current cultural and economic malaises. Goodhart is impassioned and hopeful, but the underlying ideological message is stark

It's a topsy-turvy world where the work of the heart and hand is undervalued. It's time for a radical rethink in what we value - and Goodhart's book is a part of this urgent endeavour

David Goodhart - the man who made the words "anywheres" and "somewheres" must-use terms of reference - turns his searching gaze and his genius for pithy formulation to another cause of division in the West: the fact that, as he puts it, "smart people have become too powerful.

David Goodhart is among the most insightful analysts of Anglo-American society, and of why the elites in our two countries so badly misunderstand the values, needs, and worth of most citizens. If you dream of a society that is more just and humane, offering more people more routes to dignity, prosperity, and happiness, then you will love Head, Hand, Heart

Goodhart argues compellingly that an overvaluation of the role of cognitive elites in government and society has blinded us to the importance of the caring professions and vocations based on practical skills. Presenting an agenda that has become all the more urgent since the pandemic, Head, Hand and Heart is a powerful successor to Goodhart's hugely influential Road to Somewhere. For anyone concerned with the state of politics and society, this is a real must-read

David Goodhart means to start a reformation. With great clarity and unfailing sympathy for the human condition, he charts a path toward a society in which a fuller range of aptitudes will receive the recognition they are due.

An uplifting book, celebrating wisdom and virtue. And a hopeful book at just the time when we need it

David Goodhart is one of Britain's most influential thinkers...Head, Hand, Heart is classic Goodhart - compelling, challenging, evidence-led. It throws light on how our social fabric is coming apart and why some groups have good reason to feel left behind and left out. When people ask me how we can fix our divided societies I give them two words: read Goodhart

Matthew Goodwin, Sunday Times bestselling author of National Populism

In a book that offers an entertaining and educative amalgam of political and sociocultural insight, statistical data, and crisp opinion, the author digs deeply into the different capacities of human intelligence and how, in global societies, the perception of intellect has mutated into a hierarchical plateau with differing levels of status and influence... A thoughtful, commanding analysis that applauds essential workers and cognitive diversity

A provocative and probing account... a deeply felt and persuasive call for rethinking the social order

The Struggle for Dignity and Status in the 21st Century

The coronavirus pandemic taught us something we ought already to have known: that care workers, supermarket shelf-stackers, delivery drivers and cleaners are doing essential work that keeps us all alive, fed and cared for. Until recently much of this work was regarded as menial by the the same society that now lauds them as 'key workers'. Why are they so undervalued? 
 
In this timely and original analysis, David Goodhart divides human aptitudes into three: Head (cognitive), Hand (manual and craft) and Heart (caring, emotional). It's common sense that a good society needs to recognise the value of all three, but in recent decades they have got badly out of kilter. Cognitive ability has become the gold standard of human esteem. The cognitive class now shapes society largely in its own interests, by prioritizing the knowledge economy, ever-expanding higher education and shaping the very idea of a successful life. To put it bluntly: smart people have become too powerful. 
 
Head, Hand, Heart tells the story of the cognitive takeover that has gathered pace over the past forty years. As recently as the 1970s most people left school without qualifications, but now 40 per cent of all jobs are graduate-only. A good society must re-imagine the meaning of skilled work, so that people who work with their hands and hearts are valued alongside workers who manipulate data. Our societies need to spread status more widely, and provide meaning and value for people who cannot, or do not want to, achieve in the classroom and the professions. This is the story of the central struggle for status and dignity in the twenty-first century.

David Goodhart

Praise for Head Hand Heart

Utterly compelling ... Goodhart is one of the most important intellectuals in the country, if not Europe. He has consistently been ahead of the curve, no doubt because of his willingness to point out flaws in our li ...

Brilliant ... a book every MP should read ... The Road to Somewhere has become a classic and I think Head Hand Heart will become a classic too.

Voices the predicament of those whose dream - to live an ordinary, decent life - is often thwarted by a cognitive-obsessed society that disdains those who are not natural exam-passers

Utterly compelling ... Goodhart is one of the most important intellectuals in the country, if not Europe. He has consistently been ahead of the curve, no doubt because of his willingness to point out flaws in our li ...

Brilliant ... a book every MP should read ... The Road to Somewhere has become a classic and I think Head Hand Heart will become a classic too.

Voices the predicament of those whose dream - to live an ordinary, decent life - is often thwarted by a cognitive-obsessed society that disdains those who are not natural exam-passers

Utterly compelling ... Goodhart is one of the most important intellectuals in the country, if not Europe. He has consistently been ahead of the curve, no doubt because of his willingness to point out flaws in our li ...

Brilliant ... a book every MP should read ... The Road to Somewhere has become a classic and I think Head Hand Heart will become a classic too.

Voices the predicament of those whose dream - to live an ordinary, decent life - is often thwarted by a cognitive-obsessed society that disdains those who are not natural exam-passers

Books by David Goodhart

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