The Ordinary Virtues
Michael Ignatieff
We send all orders via Royal Mail: within the UK, choose from 1st Class, 2nd Class or Special Delivery; for the rest of the world, International Standard or International Tracked. Delivery and packaging charges are calculated automatically at the checkout.
To collect orders in person from the Bookshop, choose Click and Collect at the checkout.
From the publisher
Winner of the Zocalo Book Prize
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
"Combines powerful moral arguments with superb storytelling."
-New Statesman
What moral values do we hold in common? As globalization draws us together economically, are the things we value converging or diverging? These twin questions led Michael Ignatieff to embark on a three-year, eight-nation journey in search of an answer. What we share, he found, are what he calls "ordinary virtues": tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience. When conflicts break out, these virtues are easily exploited by the politics of fear and exclusion, reserved for one's own group but denied to others. Yet these ordinary virtues are the key to healing and reconciliation on both a local and global scale.
"Makes for illuminating reading."
-Simon Winchester, New York Review of Books
"Engaging, articulate and richly descriptive... Ignatieff's deft histories, vivid sketches and fascinating interviews are the soul of this important book."
-Times Literary Supplement
"Deserves praise for wrestling with the devolution of our moral worlds over recent decades."
-Los Angeles Review of Books