The Needs of Strangers: On Solidarity and the Politics of Being Human

(Paperback)

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What 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

Ignatieff'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, The Needs of Strangers builds to a moving meditation on the possibility of accommodating claims of difference within a politics based on common need.

Reviews

'Michael Ignatieff writes an urgent prose... he will convince people, in highly readable fashion, that the ideas he discusses really matter' - Salman Rushdie

'Beautifully written and profoundly thoughtful' - New Statesman

'Elegant meditations on human need' - New Republic

Author Bio

Michael Ignatieff is a writer, historian and former politician. He has taught at Cambridge, Oxford, the University of Toronto and Harvard and is currently university professor at Central European University in Vienna. His books, which have been translated into twelve languages, include Blood and Belonging, Isaiah Berlin, The Needs of Strangers and The Russian Album, all published or forthcoming with Pushkin Press, and On Consolation.