The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion

by Luke Burgis

How to become yourself without losing everyone else.

We’re living in a time when it’s harder than ever to become a whole person—and to stay in authentic community. Some people dissolve into their group identities and lose themselves entirely. Others withdraw into ephemeral, online collectives they can float into and out of without consequence. Both are symptoms of the same a fragmented sense of self in an age of social contagion. This fragmentation is more than a personal crisis—it’s the soil in which hollow and often dangerous mass movements take root, offering counterfeit belonging to those desperate for meaning.

The One and the Ninety-Nine is a timely and inspiring exploration of what it means to forge a stable identity in the face of coercion, conformity, and the contagious desires of the crowd. Through compelling and original insights drawn from philosophy, psychology, and personal experience, author Luke Burgis examines how our lives are shaped by the groups we belong to—and how we, in turn, shape those groups. He offers a roadmap for engaging with modern society without losing our unique sense of personhood, and reveals the essential rites of passage and personal challenges that differentiate a life of meaning from one dictated by societal expectations.

People who are able to find their solid self and thrive in the space between the one and the many—who can act with integrity while being part of a community—live freer and more comfortable lives and become models for others. The One and the Ninety-Nine is a call to reject passive conformity, rediscover the depth of personality, and choose a life that is both truly personal and deeply connected.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Social Science, Psychology

288 pages, Hardcover

Published June 16, 2026

About the author

Luke Burgis is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life (2021), now translated into more than 20 languages, The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in an Age of Social Contagion (St. Martin's Press, 2026), and editor of Be Not Conformed: René Girard at the Nexus of Athens, Jerusalem, and Silicon Valley. He is Founder and Director of the Cluny Institute, where he develops programs at the intersection of philosophy, work, and human formation. Luke is a Professor of Business at The Catholic University of America, where he won the Provost's Innovation and Advancement in Teaching Award in 2025. He lives in Washington, DC and West Michigan with his wife and children, and writes regularly at read.lukeburgis.com.

Reviews

[Ten Cats Reading]

DNF @ p74

THE ONE AND THE NINETY-NINE by Luke Burgis will probably be incredibly popular among younger readers who are just starting out.

Burgis made a couple million dollars just out of business school, by flipping businesses, basically. The problem I have is that this is a person who has not experienced an average sort of life, despite his parents' problems weighing on him. I don't know how a person with his history can expect anyone to take this book seriously. We are not all sitting on an enormous nest-egg; that kind of security and stability alters one's material and ontological existence.

I also felt that Burgis was clumsy with his language, for a man who is basically writing about philosophy and psychology. For example, he made several claims about "our culture" without ever identifying what he means by that.

So I didn't like this one, but as always, ymmv.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the arc!📚

[Peggy Haslar · Rating 5 out of 5]

When society becomes a dysfunctional family, thinking people must take stock of who we are becoming as the contagion rises. In The One and the Ninety-Nine, Luke Burgis culls insight from contemporary sociology, wisdom from the great tradition, and inspiration from resisters to totalitarian power, layering them between beautifully narrated episodes from his own lived experience. The result is a thoroughly engaging follow-up to the equally essential Wanting: The Hidden Power of Mimesis in Everyday Life. A highly recommended book for anyone seeking to live the examined life well.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: How to become yourself without losing everyone else.

We’re living in a time when it’s harder than ever to become a whole person—and to stay in authentic community. Some people dissolve into their group identities and lose themselves entirely. Others withdraw into ephemeral, online collectives they can float into and out of without consequence. Both are symptoms of the same a fragmented sense of self in an age of social contagion. This fragmentation is more than a personal crisis—it’s the soil in which hollow and often dangerous mass movements take root, offering counterfeit belonging to those desperate for meaning.

The One and the Ninety-Nine is a timely and inspiring exploration of what it means to forge a stable identity in the face of coercion, conformity, and the contagious desires of the crowd. Through compelling and original insights drawn from philosophy, psychology, and personal experience, author Luke Burgis examines how our lives are shaped by the groups we belong to—and how we, in turn, shape those groups. He offers a roadmap for engaging with modern society without losing our unique sense of personhood, and reveals the essential rites of passage and personal challenges that differentiate a life of meaning from one dictated by societal expectations.

People who are able to find their solid self and thrive in the space between the one and the many—who can act with integrity while being part of a community—live freer and more comfortable lives and become models for others. The One and the Ninety-Nine is a call to reject passive conformity, rediscover the depth of personality, and choose a life that is both truly personal and deeply connected.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I don't approve of religion in general; I have an abiding bone-deep dislike for christians in particular, as a gay man with no interest in "overcoming my sinful nature" or whatever other nonsense "They" spew at me to coerce me into feeling a need to placate "Them" by behaving in a way comfortable to "Them." So when the author admitted to being a christian in the first few pages of the book, I set it aside with no intention of finishing the DRC.

I'm very worried about the undesigned social experiment we as a society are running in the form of algorithmically-mediated social media. I don't trust the tech scum to design the algorithms with the betterment of a person, but a bottom line, as its goal. Ample evidence of the role greed plays in the industry makes me all but positive no attention is paid to human needs when designing systems used by all of us.

Those two prior things are causally linked. I finished reading The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI (qv) and got more urgently agitated by what I read there; I recalled the DRC of this book, dealing with forming an authentic self. I opened it back up to see what I could glean.

Lots of christian nonsense. Parables and Bible quotes galore. Stating that (in his opinion, to be fair stated as such) people are more selfish now after *heavily*implying* the reason is we're more secular/less christian. Which...well...who's selfish, my dude? the people doing their best to navigate the world in ways you don't like, or you for saying your religion has The Answers to making people better and more empathetic? (Leave aside The Troubles, in the Ireland where you start your book, were an intra-christian spat that's half a millennium old.)

So no, I'm no big fan of his, nor did I think his shepherd/sheep needing rescue framing was anything other than seriously condescending.

But.

He's correct. The education system carefully indoctrinates us to accept Authority and seek conformity. It's a real thing, intentionally designed to do what we see around us: create sheeple. It's been done by his co-religionists for millennia now, to equally destructive effect, not ever acknowledged or examined by him. It's a giant problem for every society throughout time. Cohesion good, public morality good, conformity and scapegoating bad. Since christianity is a major source of both pressure to conform and assigning blame onto Others (those who don't pray like you, sexual-behavioral minorities, the Devil) I think it takes big brass ones not to examine *that* in great detail while quietly assuming the adding-back of religion will go a long way to fixing the very real problem he's identified.

I admire you, Brother Luke, for being so vulnerable and forthcoming about your experiences with your father's dementia. It was very moving. It was a long struggle, of course, and from the inside must've felt interminable. I do not think it was quite the connective tissue you intended it to be. It was rather more confessional than professional.

I did not, in other words, find solutions I want to support or even effect to the very real, well-stated societal stressors I'm eager to address. It's not likely to fix things by doing yet again things that helped society fracture before now.

[Adam Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The One and the Ninety-Nine by has been the most thought-provoking book I’ve read in the last several years. From the beginning you are hooked by the story of his dad and he masterfully weaves that story throughout the book. It took me several weeks to get through this because I was constantly stopping and pondering what I had just read. This book greatly challenged me and I will be thinking about it for a long time.

Get a copy of this book! Chapter 4 is worth the price of the book alone!

Here are a few things that caused me to think deeper:

💡Optimizing for comfort doesn’t give people the test, the forge, that they need to develop into individuals with a strong sense of who they are. Isn’t it interesting that many people look back on the hard-ass coach, the demanding teacher, or the one friend who held them accountable with deep gratitude?

💡Environments shape us profoundly, but we normally don’t see their effects until we have some distance, sometimes coming only through the passage of time.

💡A core part of education is learning what we believe, what we’re willing to commit to, and what we’re willing to walk away from.

💡Endless scrolling is symptomatic of the restlessness we experience when we are unable or unwilling to attend to reality.

💡It’s harder than ever to know what deserves attention and how to make meaning of the torrents of data we can now access. Which information actually helps us live a good life, and which is just a distraction?

💡The self, rather than being something we build through intentional acts, is being shaped passively…slowly and subtly conforming to algorithmic expectations.

💡When every choice is invisibly influenced before it is made, when every desire is preformed by unseen forces, what does freedom mean?

💡”How do you know something’s effect on your life if you’ve never lived life without it?” – question posed by a 2022 graduate in regard to technology

💡Leisure is not idleness or mere relaxation; it’s the act of being fully present without productive ends to measure everything by. – that really challenged me!

💡Burnout doesn’t come from external oppression, but from efforts toward self-optimization.

💡Every leader is ultimately judged by the quality of the lives they help others live.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you Macmillan Audio for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I had to DNF this book at 50%. I found it all over the place, and it simply did not work for me.

I enjoyed two narrators, I think it is a smart decision. The quality of the audio was great. I also enjoyed the introduction and personal stories. However, it was hard to understand what author’s family story has to do with finding authenticity. This would better work as memoir or autobiography. Additionally, once I started listening to the audiobook, I realized that the description was a bit misleading.

I also tend to look skeptical at people who call others sheeple, or compare people with sheep. I found it funny that in the beginning, the author claimed we would identify with a lost sheep in the story, I exclaimed “no, I identify more with a shepherd”.

I did enjoy some of the examples. However, everything is extremely nuanced and not just black and white, I wish the author explored these examples more. I also liked the idea of solid- vs pseudo-self

Author also mentioned in the beginning that our society is sick because people change jobs more often and have kids later. This is a bold statement. I think the better way to look at these things is instead of blaming the individuals, analyze the society and ask why is it so. While author did so occasionally, I felt like there was always blame placed on others.

I did enjoy the conversations about education system and hidden curriculum.

I also was surprised by the biblical references. This is just not something I enjoy in the context of self-growth and personal development. Unfortunately, the author completely lost me when he started talking about demonic influences.

I just felt like I read a book like this 10 times already in my boss-girl era. I think the better alternative to this book is The Courage to Be Disliked.

Two stars because I still can appreciate the effort and author’s dedication. I recognize that this is simply not for me.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of interesting material in this book. Burgis writes about how we're all pressured to present a self that fits in, rather than who we really are: he calls it the pseudo-self. These days, it's gone way beyond peer pressure: we're pressured by social media, by algorithms, by AI, and by the increasing polarization in our social, religious and political lives. As Jack Dorsey notes, we don't really have free will when we're being constantly manipulated.

I particularly liked the sections on education, and how encouraging children to discuss and discover enables them for understand their own identities, as well as accept those of others. I also liked the stress on rites of passage, and how they're sorely lacking today. I was also struck by his note that where you live has a massive effect, not just on your lifestyle, but your desires. Being immersed in a local culture changes you in ways you don't expect.

When I picked up the book, I didn't realize Burgis was a Benedictine monk. It was definitely interesting to see how he applies the Rule to the concept of identity: above all, plain speaking and humility. Listen, share, and accept. I think we could all use more of that.

So why only three stars? I found the book slow and hard to read. It was structured oddly, with "Probes", "Thresholds" and "Dynamics" scattered through the text (whatever those are), interspersed with QR codes (including one that said "Don't follow this", so I didn't). There were numerous stories about Burgis, his family, his friends, and his business acquaintances (he was an entrepreneur before he was a monk), including a drawn-out account of his father's dementia. Another reviewer, writing about Burgis's previous book, described it as "a LinkedIn post masquerading as philosophy," which I think captures the essence of it. Honestly, I think it would have been better as a blog.

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I opened up 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬𝑻𝒀-𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑬: 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒃𝒚 𝑳𝒖𝒌𝒆 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒔, graciously #gifted to me by @stmartinspress & @macmillan.audio I had no idea how deeply this would hit.

Caveat here, I have always believed myself to be a bit of an outsider. This has been both positive and generally more negative. As I've aged, I've come to discern a bit more which groups I more easily fit, and out of which I needed to exit. But I have never felt clear about where I go from there. This is part of personal formation that is addressed in this book.

In this digital age (irony abounding here), it becomes harder to decipher just who or what is forming us, and if we even really want to be honest about our susceptibility to be formed.

This book uses personal experiences, psychology, & philosophy to examine this difficulty of identity formation, and also how our current institutions are not helpful. Finding community is imperative for most healthy humans, but it can also be dangerous, and knowing when that is happening is possible, but not always easy. Going beyond false identities and experiencing true personal depth actually helps us become authentic and form better communities.

I loved this book. I flew through it with the audio today at work, but since it was a Friday and I had my work done early, I could sit and enjoy all the graphics in the book itself as well! This is definitely a book I want to go through again with friends. I did also like the extra steps in the audio exclusive, so that's a bonus if you like the audio format!

This comes out June 16th, and I cannot recommend this enough. There was language I recognized from my church community, but plenty more that makes this a very accessible and well-researched book.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luke Burgis does an excellent job diagnosing one of the most pressing issues in today's society, the erosion of authentic identity amid the pressure to conform, and offers a path forward through cultivating our "solid self."

This book is more philosophical than self-help, as Burgis examines community, from family to the national stage, in the past and present, and how individuals interact while being their authentic self (solid self) versus a pseudo self adopted to fit in with group dynamics. Burgis' personal anecdotes, coupled with analysis in each chapter, keep the book engaging. At the same time, the larger argument comes through clearly: forming a "solid self" is critical both for the individual human experience and for genuine cooperation at the community level. One chapter's discussion of being courageous in the workplace to encourage team members to be their solid selves particularly illustrates this tension between authenticity and belonging. Burgis also provides practical advice in each chapter to help readers move toward a more solid self in their own lives and communities.

I highly recommend readers of any age take the time to read this book, not just to understand how to become more "solid," but to see how doing so changes the way we show up for the people and communities around us.

[Chaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I requested this ARC because the description sounded like it would offer a thoughtful perspective that aligned with many of my interests. Unfortunately, this ended up being a DNF for me.

The description mentions that the book draws on philosophy, psychology, and personal experience. I was expecting a stronger emphasis on the first two. I do not mind dense reading with many citations but I found it leaned much more heavily into the author's opinions and personal experiences. This is largely a matter of personal preference. Memoir-style writing simply isn't something that tends to hold my attention.

There were genuinely insightful moments throughout the portions I read. I came across several ideas that made me stop and think, and those were the highlights of the book. However, I literally fell asleep almost every time I picked it up. After several attempts, I realized I wasn't going to finish it.

I think readers who enjoy reflective, personal, philosophical memoirs may connect with this book much more than I did. It just wasn't the right fit for my reading tastes.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

[Kate]

This was an interesting read on how we create an identity while also trying to be part of community. In this book Luke Bergis takes us on his journey of personal self discovery on how he found his solid self. He takes us to Ireland and Italy, from vending machine company owner to seminary school to author. He invites us into his marriage, his fatherhood, and his time of deep grief and self reflection. I appreciated the personal stories he told, and how he approached religion and politics and how all of these shape our self. He did a nice job of combining these personal stories with scientific information and research. This allowed the reader to learn about how to become a solid self without getting too bored or feeling like we were reading a textbook. I think this was a very timely read, as we live in a world where we are struggling to figure out how to become an individual in a world that asks us to choose sides and lose ourselves if we want to belong. I received an ARC, and this is my honest review.

[Brandon H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"This book's premise is simple: each of us is torn between belonging and differentiation and few ever learn to manage that tension. We might not even realize it exists. Once we become aware of the tension and learn to navigate it, we can live with far more freedom and far more integrity than ever."- Luke Burgis

I picked this up with great anticipation as one of my favorite authors highly recommended it. While I found some of it interesting it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. A few chapters were 5 stars for me but most were about 2 to 2.5. And I was confused by the "Probes," "Thresholds" and "Dynamics" like other reviewers mentioned. I think his message would have worked better in a different format.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a slow read for me, but I’m glad I stuck with it until the end. I especially enjoyed the personal anecdotes and human-centered scenarios, as they helped illustrate and provide access to the author’s more nebulous and philosophical premise. The artistic flare also helped elevate this book, with the photos and artwork adding texture and generating my curiosity. While this doesn’t make for light fare, it’ll be a great read for folks who enjoy delving into similar works and thinking deeply about identity and our connections with others.

[Cinnamon Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced audio copy!

I enjoy all of Burgis's books and so I knew I would likely enjoy this one. This was a great listen and I think is an important listen in todays day of people desperately trying to forge their identity in a society that is pulling them in a million different directions.

Highly recommend to anyone who finds identity culture right now frustrating or simply likes books on behavior and groupthink!

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would recommend reading the author’s first book Wanting and see how he applied Rene Gerard’s theories to his personal life. He went from working in technology to studying at a Catholic seminary and now teaches at a Catholic university. I particularly enjoyed the references from this book and now have a reading list to enjoy.

[Jennifer Loschiavo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved how this didn’t sound like someone telling me how i should be and how this is how you have to do something. It was just general philosophies and psychology put in a very digestible form. Just a book of friendly reminders and the science behind it. Great book.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading The One and the Ninety-Nine by Luke Burgis. I felt the topic of discussion to be relevant to our current times as well as applicable over the course of history. The writer's style was engaging with a good balance of interesting facts and personal experiences.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. This examination of how to maintain one's individuality while participating in groups makes some interesting points and does provide a few good tips, especially at the end. I had hoped to get more depth out of this book, though.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. Talked about the importance of being unique and not conforming. Overall, not great. But had alot of personal struggles from the author's life. Probably a 2.5 ⭐ with a round up. Really can't recommend.

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars