{"title":"Michael Ignatieff","description":"\u003cp\u003eMichael Ignatieff’s works navigate the complex intersections of identity, history, and morality, offering profound reflections on politics and human experience. From exploring national belonging to the nuances of ethical responsibility, his writing engages deeply with contemporary political and philosophical questions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlending biography, memoir, and philosophical inquiry, Ignatieff examines the human condition with compassion and insight. Readers can expect thoughtful narratives that illuminate the challenges of conscience, the politics of memory, and the quest for meaning in troubled times.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"on-consolation","title":"On Consolation","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs read on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week', \u003ci\u003eOn Consolation\u003c\/i\u003e by Michael Ignatieff offers a deeply poignant and thought-provoking journey through the ways in which humanity has grappled with the ageless quest for solace in the face of profound loss and suffering. Ignatieff explores how writers, composers, and artists have sought comfort and resilience amidst life's hardest trials, from personal heartbreaks to global crises.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this moving and profound exploration, Ignatieff draws on a rich tapestry of historical and literary sources, reconstructing the lives and works of key figures who have wrestled with despair and sought meaning through their art and writing. The narrative spans across time, from the ancient scriptures of the Book of Job and Psalms to the modern accounts of Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi. Each portrait depicts an individual striving to find the strength to endure and the hope to persevere, offering readers a timeless meditation on the nature of consolation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOnce a central part of spiritual and philosophical discourse, the language of consolation has diminished in an age increasingly dominated by scientific, ideological, and therapeutic frameworks. Ignatieff delves into the historical shifts that have led to this cultural evolution, examining how traditional sources of comfort, such as religious institutions, have waned in influence. He challenges readers to reconsider the value of ancient wisdom in contemporary contexts, suggesting that the narratives of past thinkers and creators hold powerful lessons for modern resilience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the quest for comfort is an intrinsic part of the human condition. As Ignatieff vividly brings to life the moments when historical figures have confronted their darkest hours and emerged with renewed courage, \u003ci\u003eOn Consolation\u003c\/i\u003e makes a compelling case that these enduring traditions can be revitalised to address the uncertainties and anxieties of the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.' - Toronto Star\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eOn Consolation\u003c\/i\u003e is not just a historical analysis; it is a guide for our times, offering profound insights for anyone seeking comfort and meaning in an unpredictable world. Through its rich narrative and evocative storytelling, the book invites readers to join a conversation that spans centuries, bridging the past and present in a quest for enduring hope and solace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Publishers New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45719357489388,"sku":"9781529053791","price":20.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781529053791.jpg?v=1726123860"},{"product_id":"isaiah-berlin-by-michael-ignatieff-9781782279044","title":"Isaiah Berlin","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIsaiah Berlin\u003c\/em\u003e was one of the great thinkers and most electrifying speakers of his time. A magnetic public intellectual and beacon of liberal philosophy, he gained astonishing first-hand experience of some of the pivotal events of the twentieth century. Berlin refused to write an autobiography, but he did agree to talk about himself: in the last decade of his life, he allowed acclaimed writer Michael Ignatieff to interview him about his past, his ideas, his intimate memories, and innermost conflicts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is a magisterial biography that penetrates deeply into Berlin's life and thought while capturing his captivating, vivid style of conversation. We learn of Berlin's Russian childhood during the Bolshevik Revolution, his happiness as a scholar at Oxford and later work in Washington D.C. during the Second World War; and we hear unforgettable anecdotes of encounters with Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, and Boris Pasternak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReissued in a revised and updated edition, \u003cem\u003eIsaiah Berlin\u003c\/em\u003e charts one man's journey to becoming one of his century's most vigorous defenders of liberty and individuality in the face of tyranny and dogma.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46549483421932,"sku":"9781782279044","price":27.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15491063482822.jpg?v=1749903009"},{"product_id":"the-russian-album-by-michael-ignatieff-9781782279068","title":"The Russian Album","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoring over his grandparents' memoirs, grainy photographs of his distinguished ancestors, and relating family lore passed from father to son, Michael Ignatieff begins a moving journey to come to terms with his inheritance that is bound up with the violent tumult of Russian history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith great care and complexity, Ignatieff reconstructs a vanished way of life. Beginning in the opulent court of Catherine the Great, he traces his family's rise to great influence in the imperial regime of Tsar Nicholas II before the country is swept up in revolution, civil war, and exile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA profound meditation on rootlessness and belonging, \u003cem\u003eThe Russian Album\u003c\/em\u003e explores both how we are formed by our pasts and how we must write our own stories in the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46846610407660,"sku":"9781782279068","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15491303482822.jpg?v=1758915205"},{"product_id":"blood-belonging-by-michael-ignatieff-9781782279105","title":"Blood \u0026 Belonging","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1993, Michael Ignatieff set out on a journey to the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Germany, Quebec, Kurdistan, and Northern Ireland to explore the many faces of modern nationalism. Why, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, were so many nation-states disintegrating into ethnic conflict? What did nationalism promise that so many were willing to shed blood in the name of an idea of belonging?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a stimulating mix of interviews, history, and evocative reportage, Ignatieff provides a searching analysis of the brutal conflicts and powerful fantasies produced by ethnic nationalism, and questions the possibility of a nationalism based on shared civic values. Reissued with a new preface, \u003cem\u003eBlood \u0026amp; Belonging\u003c\/em\u003e is a nuanced, fascinating account of one of our era's defining political issues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46848553943276,"sku":"9781782279105","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15491673482822.jpg?v=1758987256"},{"product_id":"the-needs-of-strangers-by-michael-ignatieff-9781782279082","title":"The Needs of Strangers","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat does a person need, not just to survive, but to flourish? In this profound, searching book, Michael Ignatieff explores the many human needs that go beyond basic sustenance: for love, for respect, for community and consolation. In a society of strangers, how might we find a common language to express such needs?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIgnatieff's lucid, penetrating enquiry takes him back to great works of philosophy, literature and art, from St. Augustine to Hieronymus Bosch to Shakespeare. Reissued with a new preface, \u003ci\u003eThe Needs of Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e builds to a moving meditation on the possibility of accommodating claims of difference within a politics based on common need.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46850340192492,"sku":"9781782279082","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15491443482822.jpg?v=1759082917"},{"product_id":"the-ordinary-virtues-by-michael-ignatieff-9780674237490","title":"The Ordinary Virtues","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Zócalo Book Prize\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"Combines powerful moral arguments with superb storytelling.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n—\u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"Makes for illuminating reading.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n—Simon Winchester, \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"Engaging, articulate and richly descriptive. Ignatieff's deft histories, vivid sketches and fascinating interviews are the soul of this important book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n—\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"Deserves praise for wrestling with the devolution of our moral worlds over recent decades.\"\u003cbr\u003e\n—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000802689260,"sku":"9780674237490","price":42.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/876783482428.jpg?v=1763306036"},{"product_id":"fire-and-ashes-by-michael-ignatieff-9780674725997","title":"Fire and Ashes","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2005, Michael Ignatieff left his life as a writer and professor at Harvard University to enter the combative world of politics back home in Canada. By 2008, he was leader of the country's Liberal Party and poised—should the governing Conservatives falter—to become Canada's next Prime Minister. It never happened. Today, after a bruising electoral defeat, Ignatieff is back where he started, writing and teaching what he learned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat did he take away from this crash course in political success and failure? Did a life of thinking about politics prepare him for the real thing? How did he handle it when his own history as a longtime expatriate became a major political issue? Are cynics right to despair about democratic politics? Are idealists right to hope? Ignatieff blends reflection and analysis to portray today's democratic politics as ruthless, unpredictable, unforgiving, and hyper-adversarial.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRough as it is, Ignatieff argues, democratic politics is a crucible for compromise, and many of the apparent vices of political life, from inconsistency to the fake smile, follow from the necessity of bridging differences in a pluralist society. A compelling account of modern politics as it really is, \u003cem\u003eFire and Ashes\u003c\/em\u003e is also a celebration of the political life in all its wild, exuberant variety.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47460830052588,"sku":"9780674725997","price":85.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780674725997-fire-and-ashes.jpg?v=1774953353"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/michael-ignatieff.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}