‘The Madness of Crowds’ by Douglas Murray: review

After the release of his best-selling last book, The Strange Death of Europe, all eyes were on Douglas Murray to see what he would write next. In his latest work, The Madness of Crowds, Murray once again takes contemporary society to task, this time wading into the deep and dangerous waters of identity politics. The book is deeply analytical yet incredibly enjoyable, and it gets you thinking about questions you maybe daren’t have asked before.

The book is primarily split into four main sections: ‘gay’, ‘women’, ‘race’ and ‘trans’, in which he analyses the emergence of these identities as dominant cultural forces, offering a number of case studies and discussing some of the inherent contradictions within these positions. There are also three minor interludes in between the chapters: two discussing the ‘Marxist foundations’ and the ‘impact of tech’ in facilitating identity politics and the third on the general lack of forgiveness in contemporary society.

Given the widespread precedence of some of these ideas in our lives, it’s shocking how little discussion and analysis of them has taken place. As people are being condemned for failing to follow rules that may only have been invented yesterday, society needs a book like Murray’s – he slates a new cultural expectation that we ignore long-held rules of society, and tackle things we know not to be true simply by shutting down discussion.

He quotes cultural figures as diverse as Tiresias, the blind prophet of Apollo, and Nicki Minaj, and always in a way that feels appropriate and illuminating to his case

Murray asks a big question – why should there be such hypersensitivity on these identity issues at a moment when they were beginning to fade in importance? He mentions, for example, that in 50 years, society has gone from Martin Luther King’s vision of a world in which people are judged on their character, rather than their skin colour, to one in which race is the be-all and end-all. But his argument covers a lot more ground than that, citing cases that you may have heard about, but analysing exactly why they are important and so harmful to the liberal thoughts they supposedly uphold. He quotes cultural figures as diverse as Tiresias, the blind prophet of Apollo, and Nicki Minaj, and always in a way that feels appropriate and illuminating to his case.

The Madness of Crowds has been attacked as “a right-wing diatribe”, but it’s important to note that it is always calm and focused. Murray is not interested in grand sweeping statements that attack the positions he discusses – rather, he simply runs through their arguments, highlighting the inherent contradictions and inconsistencies within them, and building a case so gradually that it’s hard to argue against at the end of each chapter. The promulgation of identity politics means we have been forced into believing things contrary to logic and our human nature. When Murray shows us this in The Madness of Crowds, there will be many readers who feel a weight lifted off their shoulders.

In a time when every dissenting opinion on these subjects is silenced, it’s so important to have a cogent, rational and frequently enjoyable analysis of the other side

Whether or not you agree with Murray and the essence of his argument, you will find a lot in this work that will have you nodding your head. Who could find fault with his suggestion that every single thing has become over-politicised, much to the detriment of our shared values? And, as a student, I also particularly enjoyed the section in which Murray rallies against academics, using confusing and poorly-written prose to mask the fact they aren’t really saying anything. Students are left to feel dumb for not understanding thoroughly un-understandable work (I sympathised, and I’m sure many students will). 

I didn’t thinkThe Madness of Crowds was a perfect book, by any means. I think that the interludes warranted far more examination that they receive – I’d have loved full-length chapters but I appreciate that that’s not where the focus of the book lies. Murray also cites a number of real human stories, particularly in the ‘trans’ chapter (its relative newness as a major group means there’s not a big cache of historical examples), but they often felt unsolved – in certain cases, they seem to tail off with no ending after the point has been made, and it would have been nice to see a conclusion. These are minor gripes, however, in a fantastic work.

In a time when every dissenting opinion on these subjects is silenced, it’s so important to have a cogent, rational and frequently enjoyable analysis of the other side. And it’s particularly noteworthy that this book isn’t an attack on those who conform to these identities – rather, he breaks apart the contradictions in the ideas that surround them, calmly and with great nuance. And, as identity politics becomes increasingly prominent, a book like The Madness of Crowds grows ever more essential. I’d encourage you, whatever your perspective, to give it a read.