Publisher's Synopsis
Wokeness has conquered our institutions. The worlds of politics, academia and even corporate capitalism now bend the knee to the new orthodoxies around gender, racism and identity. How Woke Won explores the intellectual roots of wokeness and how this movement, which poses as radical and left-wing, came to be embraced by some of the most privileged people imaginable. In this powerful critique, Joanna Williams argues that anyone interested in building a truly free, egalitarian and democratic society needs to tackle wokeness head-on.
‘This book is the essential guide for our era of confusion and incoherence as moral revolutionaries tear down statues, institutions, and widely held values. With clear thinking and gripping storytelling, Williams explains how how a minority of the elites in Britain and America were able to intimidate the rest of the elites into silence or complicity, imposing a "revolution from above" that is anti-democratic and cruel. Anyone who wants to restore sanity, beauty, or simple humanity to our public life should read How Woke Won’. -- - Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind, Co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind.
‘Joanna Williams has written a highly readable and gripping anatomy of the Woke phenomenon which is poisoning our intellectual, social and political life. As she shows, it has gained a grip over many public institutions from primary schools to universities, the civil service, and cultural institutions. She tells the story of how this has happened, and explains why: because it empowers the elite that runs a large part of our lives, and want to run more. It's a worrying story of intimidation and moral blackmail, but she holds out the hope that its victory need not be permanent. In this brave and lucid book, she has done us a great service’. - Robert Tombs, Emeritus Professor of French History, The University of Cambridge and author of The English and Their History
