The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations is not Inevitable

by Michael Novak

Starting with 9/11 and continuing with the struggle for peace in Iraq, the West has been forced to interact more fully with the civilization of Islam. In The Universal Hunger for Liberty , statesman and award-winning author Michael Novak sets forth a new model for facing this challenge-and for healing a still violently fractured world. In place of ongoing conflict, he offers a surprisingly optimistic vision of how the concept of fundamental human liberty-shared by the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions-can heal our cultural, economic, and political differences.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

320 pages, paper

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Michael Novak is an American Catholic philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. He is George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute

Novak served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1981 and 1982 and led the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1986.

In 1993 Novak was honored with an honorary doctorate degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquín] due to his commitment to the idea of liberty. In 1994 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Reviews

[The American Conservative]

'I was not surprised to see that Michael Novak, the well-known neoconservative author, had written a book called The Universal Hunger for Liberty. I was surprised to see the subtitle —Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable. Although strongly opposed to the foreign-policy positions Novak has advocated, I can appreciate much of what he is attempting to do here. Intentionally or not, Novak has written a book that tempers the extremism of the likes of Daniel Pipes on the most belligerent end of the neoconservative spectrum, whose vision of the future involves ceaseless war and the very clash of civilizations that Novak’s new book insists is avoidable.'

Read the full review, "Democracy for All," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Bethany · Rating 1 out of 5]

Novak tackles an important question - is Islam ideologically conducive to democracy? But his treatment of that very intriguing question is incredibly boring and not very insightful. Someone else will have to take this on...

[Garnetgirl]

This author approaches the issues of radical Muslim/ Islam/ terrorism etc. in relation to Western culture & beliefs from what seems to be a different perspective...a 'profound commitment' to liberty(?)

I respect his writing, so I'm very interested in reading this.