The Ordinary Virtues

Winner of the Zcalo 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 ones 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 Ignatieffs 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