On Cultivating Liberty: Reflections on Moral Ecology - Tapa dura

Michael Novak's concern over many years has been to ground the defense of capitalism in a long tradition of western moral reflection. This collection of essays presents this concern in a compact and highly lucid form. The book can be read with pleasure both by those familiar with Novak's earlier work and by those coming to his ideas for the first time. -- Peter L. Berger, Boston University In these essays on the cultural foundations of freedom, one of America's leading intellectuals reinvigorates a great tradition of social thought. Michael Novak enriches theories of civil society by supplying their missing links to Jewish and Christian teachings, and modernizes them with his sophisticated concept of 'moral ecology.' On Cultivating Liberty is a compelling brief against the moral deregulation that threatens the free market and the democratic experiment alike. -- Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See In these reflections, Michael Novak moves with magisterial ease over the common ground between ethics and economics. More even than in his earlier volumes, Novak demonstrates with calm clarity, how a proper understanding of liberty and its moral ecology leads not only to the good life but to good lives. A major contribution to resolving issues that still vex us at the end of the century. -- Bob Royal, Ethics and Public Policy Center This collection of Michael's Novak's 'best essays' is a necessary resource for those interested in the mature thought of this important thinker. ...the final essay, Errands into the Wilderness, covers some of the same ground as the essay Controversial Engagements from an interestingly different angle. * First Things, May, 1999 * Novak is well known as a defender of democratic capitalism. The pieces in this collection are intended to situate that defense in a larger context. -- Joseph M. Knippenberg, Oglethorpe University * Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 29, No. 2 * Novak's suggestions for preserving and improving regimes of liberty is still another fine contribution to the growing list of theorists attempting to grapple with the slide of liberty into individual and collective relativism and even nihilism. * The Journal Of Religion *

On Cultivating Liberty brings together Novak's essays on "moral ecology:' the ethos that must be cultivated and preserved if liberal democratic societies are to survive. Novak argues in defense of a free and virtuous society by examining the family, welfare reform, free markets, self-government, and the American Founding, and includes a series of remarkable intellectual studies on figures ranging from Jacques Maritain to St. Thomas Aquinas. Along with a biographical essay and an introduction by Brian C. Anderson, On Cultivating Liberty is indispensable for anyone concerned about the future of democracy.