THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 'Douglas Murray fights the good fight for freedom of speech ... A truthful look at today's most divisive issues' - Jordan B. Peterson '[Murray's] latest book is beyond brilliant and should be read, must be read, by everyone' - Richard Dawkins 'How can you not know about The Madness of Crowds? It's actually the book I've just finished. You can't just not read these books, not know about them.' - Tom Stoppard In his devastating new book The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray examines the twenty-first century's most divisive issues: sexuality, gender, technology and race. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our workplaces, universities, schools and homes in the names of social justice, identity politics and 'intersectionality'. We are living through a postmodern era in which the grand narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed. In their place have emerged a crusading desire to right perceived wrongs and a weaponization of identity, both accelerated by the new forms of social and news media. Narrow sets of interests now dominate the agenda as society becomes more and more tribal - and, as Murray shows, the casualties are mounting. Readers of all political persuasions cannot afford to ignore Murray's masterfully argued and fiercely provocative book, in which he seeks to inject some sense into the discussion around this generation's most complicated issues. He ends with an impassioned call for free speech, shared common values and sanity in an age of mass hysteria.

Douglas Murray is the internationally bestselling author of The Strange Death of Europe and the foremost commentator on identity and culture in the United Kingdom. In his explosive new book The Madness of Crowds Murray examines the twenty-first century's most contentious issues: sexuality, race, mental health and gender. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our media, universities, schools, homes and in perhaps the most violent place of all: online.

He asks whether the concept of 'intersectionality' - the popular theory that all minority rights overlap - has in fact driven us wildly off course. Rather than providing the route to justice and enlightenment, it has ignored the fact that increasingly narrow sets of interests often work in opposition to one another. This applies across a huge spectrum of areas including trans and gay issues, race and women's rights.

Policing each of these causes are the loud and frequently anonymous voices on social media and in the press. Murray argues that social media and online networks, originally designed as forums for open speech, have emboldened the mob and exacerbated groupthink - self-censorship and public shaming have become rife. As a result, and out of terror, we have unlearned the ability to speak frankly about some of the most important issues affecting society, due entirely to the fear of being criticised.

Drawing on examples from those directly affected by the crowd mentality, including Tim Hunt in Britain and Brett Weinstein in America, Murray walks against the tide of censorship. He asks us to think more openly about what we're afraid to say; to think outside of the mob and the psychology of the crowd. With his characteristic perceptiveness and eminently readable prose, Murray argues vociferously for a return to free speech in an age of mass hysteria.

Murray's book raises urgent questions about how people should conduct themselves in today's age of "wokeness"'