A TLS GUARDIAN AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020The new bestseller from the acclaimed
author of Justice and one of the world's most popular philosophers Astute insightful and
empathetic...A crucial book for this moment Tara Westover author of Educated These are
dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers where the odds are
stacked in favour of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality
give the lie to the promise that you can make it if you try. And the consequence is a brew of
anger and frustration that has fuelled populist protest with the triumph of Brexit and
election of Donald Trump. Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the polarized politics of
our time we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied
globalisation and rising inequality. Sandel highlights the hubris a meritocracy generates among
the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind. He offers an alternative
way of thinking about success - more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs more
conducive to an ethic of humility and more hospitable to a politics of the common good.