The Needs Of Strangers - Softcover

Ignatieff, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099435519 ISBN 13: 9780099435518

Publisher: Vintage, 1994

Synopsis

This brilliant and penetrating book uncovers a crisis in the political imagination, a wide-spread failure to provide the passionate sense of community "in which our need for belonging can be met". Seeking the answers to fundamental questions, Michael Ignatieff writes vividly both about ideas and about the people who tried to live by them - from Augustine to Bosch, from Rousseau to Simone Weil. Incisive and moving, The Needs of Strangers return to philosophy to its proper place, as a guide to the art of being human.

About this title

Review:

"Ignatieff has invoked the understanding, the wisdom, and the eloquence of some of the seminal thinkers in the Western tradition to help revive a sense of what we are or should be talking about when we talk about the needs of strangers."--Merle Rubin, "Christian Science Monitor"
"A very eloquent meditation . . . on what we need to be human and how in our society those 'with resources and those in need remain strangers to each other.'"--Des Christy, "The Guardian" (London)
"Unusual, beautifully written and profoundly thoughtful."--Bernard Crick, " New Statesman"
"Ignatieff writes in urgent prose that even, at times, sounds a little evangelistic; and he will convince many people, in highly readable fashion, that the ideas being discussed really matter, that they are important to argue over; and that passion is admirable, because they do, and they are."--Salman Rushdie, "Manchester Guardian Weekly"""

Ignatieff has invoked the understanding, the wisdom, and the eloquence of some of the seminal thinkers in the Western tradition to help revive a sense of what we are or should be talking about when we talk about the needs of strangers. "Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor"

A very eloquent meditation . . . on what we need to be human and how in our society those 'with resources and those in need remain strangers to each other.' "Des Christy, The Guardian (London)"

Unusual, beautifully written and profoundly thoughtful. "Bernard Crick, New Statesman"

Ignatieff writes in urgent prose that even, at times, sounds a little evangelistic; and he will convince many people, in highly readable fashion, that the ideas being discussed really matter, that they are important to argue over; and that passion is admirable, because they do, and they are. "Salman Rushdie, Manchester Guardian Weekly""

"Ignatieff has invoked the understanding, the wisdom, and the eloquence of some of the seminal thinkers in the Western tradition to help revive a sense of what we are or should be talking about when we talk about the needs of strangers." --Merle Rubin, Christian Science Monitor

"A very eloquent meditation . . . on what we need to be human and how in our society those 'with resources and those in need remain strangers to each other.'" --Des Christy, The Guardian (London)

"Unusual, beautifully written and profoundly thoughtful." --Bernard Crick, New Statesman

"Ignatieff writes in urgent prose that even, at times, sounds a little evangelistic; and he will convince many people, in highly readable fashion, that the ideas being discussed really matter, that they are important to argue over; and that passion is admirable, because they do, and they are." --Salman Rushdie, Manchester Guardian Weekly

About the Author:

Michael Ignatieff was born in Canada in 1947. A former Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge and a distinguished writer and broadcaster, he is the author of A Just Measure of Pain, The Needs of Strangers and The Russian Album. His first novel, Asya, was published by Chatto & Windus in 1991 and his second novel, Scar Tissue, was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0099435519
• ISBN 13: 9780099435518
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160