The Road to Somewhere

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart, read by Simon Bubb.

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.

Critics Review

  • 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

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

    The Times
  • [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

    New Statesman
  • 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

    Financial Times
  • 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

    Observer
  • 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

    The Guardian

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.