On Consolation

"Elegant, humane, and intensely rewarding." —Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies That Bind

"At once, illuminating, moving and consoling." —Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve

From the internationally renowned historian of ideas and Booker Prize-finalist Michael Ignatieff, a timely and profound meditation on where to find solace in the face of tragedy and crisis.

When someone we love dies, 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… Keep Reading