Welcome

I’m delighted that you’ve found your way to this site. I hope you’ll find it useful. 

I’ve included information about my life and career as a writer, historian, professor and politician. You’ll also find a complete bibliography of my writing and you can download some of my pieces.

I’ve also included links so that if you want to buy my books, you can do so. 

I’m happy to say that my latest book On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times, after appearing in the UK, Canada and the US, has been published in German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, Chinese, and Romanian, as well as in audiobook form.  Four of my previously published titles, Isaiah Berlin: a lifeThe Needs of StrangersThe Russian Albumand Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism have all been re-issued with new prefaces by Pushkin Press in London.

If you’d like to get in touch with a query or a comment, please click the button provided and I will try to reply as soon as I can.

Interviews

2023 Symons Medal Presentation and Lecture

Held annually, the Symons Medal Presentation and Lecture offer a national platform for an eminent Canadian to discuss the nation’s current state, shared histories, and prospects using themes related to their professional pursuits.

— Nov 8, 2023 @ Confederation Centre of the Arts

Thinking Clearly about War and Violence: The Role of Humanitarian Law

The lecture by the Professor, of the CEU Department of History, Michael Ignatieff entitled “Thinking Clearly About War and Violence: The Role of Humanitarian Law” is the inaugural lecture of the CEU Talks series where the faculty discusses current issues.

— Nov 22, 2023 @ Central European University

On Consolation: Navigating Dark Times

Michael Ignatieff @ Seize the Moment Podcast

— May 2023

“Academic freedom: threats within and without”

Michael Ignatieff @ Trinity College Dublin

— October 2022

Latest writing

New book out / November 9, 2021

On Consolation

When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes—war, famine, pandemic—we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic.

How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of portraits of writers, artists and musicians searching for consolation—from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi—writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

See excerpt (Introduction: After Paradise)

About Michael Ignatieff

Professor

Michael Ignatieff was until recently the Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest. He stepped down at the end of July 2021, to stay as a Professor in the History Department.

Politician

Between 2006 and 2011, Michael Ignatieff served as an MP in the Parliament of Canada and then as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition. He is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and holds thirteen honorary degrees.

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