Michael Ignatieff: Consolation for Our Times

  • Sat 20 Aug 19:00 - 20:00
  • Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court
Watch online

Pay what you can to watch online. Available live, then on-demand after the event.

Attend in person
  • Baillie Gifford Sculpture Court
  • £14.00 [£12.00]
Michael Ignatieff: Consolation for Our Times

The historian and political theorist Michael Ignatieff began writing a book about consolation before the first lockdown. Now, our lives changed by Covid-19, and with over 80 million refugees fleeing conflicts worldwide, On Consolation feels spectacularly timely. He explains what we can learn from key figures through history who responded creatively to a crisis in conversation with broadcast journalist Allan Little.

Categories: Health/Wellbeing, History, How We Live, Politics

Share this event

The World Dissected: Political Discussions
The World Dissected: Political Discussions

A series examining the legacies, travesties, successes and failures of various political factions from across the globe, and the stories of those who have risked everything to resist.  …

Truth-Seekers: Essential History
Truth-Seekers: Essential History

Historians get to the heart of our historic truths – retracing lost narratives and reflecting on the shortcomings and all-too-often devastating legacies of our distorted past.  …

Why not try? Kerry Brown, Sam Fowles & David Loyn: Does Power Inevitably Corrupt? Kerry Brown, Sam Fowles & David Loyn: Does Power Inevitably Corrupt? Mon 22 Aug 14:30 - 15:30
Why not try? Frank Dikötter: Rise of a Superpower Frank Dikötter: Rise of a Superpower Mon 15 Aug 14:30 - 15:30
Buy the book
in our Festival Bookshop

Look, Listen & Read

Samantha Power with Allan Little: What One Person Can Do
Samantha Power with Allan Little: What One Person Can Do

As a war correspondent in the Balkans, through to her time as senior policy advisor to Barack Obama, and her appointment in 2013 as US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power has spent her career committed to resolving international conflict and…

George Alagiah speaks to Allan Little at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
George Alagiah speaks to Allan Little at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Join popular BBC broadcaster George Alagiah as he takes off his reporting hat and plunges into a new career as political thriller writer, drawing on his knowledge and experience of working in Africa. The Burning Land sees South Africa torn apart by propa…

Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Turkish-British author Elif Shafak is a respected campaigner for women’s rights and free speech. She wrote in the New Yorker that ‘wave after wave of nationalism and tribalism have hit the shores of countries across Europe, and they have reached the …

Allan Little, Sheena McDonald & Gail Robinson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Allan Little, Sheena McDonald & Gail Robinson at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Twenty years ago, broadcaster Sheena McDonald was hit by a police van, narrowly escaping death. Her recovery led one doctor to describe her as ‘a walking miracle’. In her book Rebuilding Life after Brain Injury, she recalls the accident and its after…

Turkish writer Elif Shafak: “Populism is a fake answer to real problems”
Turkish writer Elif Shafak: “Populism is a fake answer to real problems”
Fri 23 August 2019

“Now we know that no countries are immune to toxic populism or toxic nationalism, in fact we’re all in the same boat together,” said the author and human rights activist in an emotional discussion about the rise of populism, nationalism and identit…

Veteran Broadcaster Allan Little Warns Against Cynicism About Journalism at the Book Festival
Veteran Broadcaster Allan Little Warns Against Cynicism About Journalism at the Book Festival
Wed 16 August 2017

Veteran broadcaster Allan Little has warned that “tremendous cynicism” about journalism risks “throwing out something very valuable”…