Fire and Ashes: Success and Failure in Politics

Resumen del libro

In 2005 Michael Ignatieff left his life as a writer and professor at Harvard University to enter the combative world of politics back home in Canada. By 2008, he was leader of the country's Liberal Party and poised--should the governing Conservatives falter--to become Canada's next Prime Minister. It never happened.
Today, after a bruising electoral defeat, Ignatieff is back where he started, writing and teaching what he learned. What did he take away from this crash course in political success and failure? Did a life of thinking about politics prepare him for the real thing? How did he handle it when his own history as a longtime expatriate became a major political issue? Are cynics right to despair about democratic politics? Are idealists right to hope? Ignatieff blends reflection and analysis to portray today's democratic politics as ruthless, unpredictable, unforgiving, and hyper-adversarial. Rough as it is, Ignatieff argues, democratic politics is a crucible for compromise, and many of the apparent vices of political life, from inconsistency to the fake smile, follow from the necessity of bridging differences in a pluralist society.
A compelling account of modern politics as it really is, the book is also a celebration of the political life in all its wild, exuberant variety.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B Michael Ignatieffx{0026}lt;/B (Toronto, 1947) es ensayista, académico y expolítico. Fue el líder del Partido Liberal de Canadá y de la oposición desde 2008 hasta 2011. Conocido por su obra como historiador, ha ocupado puestos académicos en las universidades de Toronto, Cambridge, Oxford y Harvard. Es rector y presidente de la Central European University de Budapest y fue catedrático de la Harvard Kennedy School. Entre sus libros cabe destacar x{0026}lt;I Isaiah Berlin. Su vida x{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 1999; 2018), x{0026}lt;I El honordel guerrero: guerra étnica y concincia modernax{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2003; 2024) x{0026}lt;I El mal menor: ética política en una era de terrorx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2005; 2018), x{0026}lt;I Fuego y cenizasx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2014; 2023), x{0026}lt;I Las virtudes cotidianasx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2018) y x{0026}lt;I En busca de consuelox{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2023). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Princesa de Asturias de Ciencias Sociales 2024.x{0026}lt;/P