Nobody is 'romanticizing a time before identity' and it's frankly absurd to suggest so.
The 20th century is full of identitarian issues such as women's suffrage, desegregation, a holocaust, racial issues galore etc.. I mean, the most traumatic event in American history, a civil war which nearly broke the Republic and in which more died that in any other war was about slavery after all.
Also, the attempt to lump the book in 'with Trump' is an indication right off the bat that the critique might be playing ideology. (I suggest Trump is utterly oblivious to even the least nuanced of the issues at hand anyhow)
And: "How are college teachers supposed to confidently court controversy when so many of them have zero security in jobs that barely pay above poverty wages?" - this isn't related to the argument at hand. It's an attempt to 'wedge in' another possibly important issue, but it's rhetorical smoke as it's applied.
The 20th century is full of identitarian issues such as women's suffrage, desegregation, a holocaust, racial issues galore etc.. I mean, the most traumatic event in American history, a civil war which nearly broke the Republic and in which more died that in any other war was about slavery after all.
Also, the attempt to lump the book in 'with Trump' is an indication right off the bat that the critique might be playing ideology. (I suggest Trump is utterly oblivious to even the least nuanced of the issues at hand anyhow)
And: "How are college teachers supposed to confidently court controversy when so many of them have zero security in jobs that barely pay above poverty wages?" - this isn't related to the argument at hand. It's an attempt to 'wedge in' another possibly important issue, but it's rhetorical smoke as it's applied.