The prize is given to the nonfiction book that most enhances our understanding of community, human connectedness, and social cohesion. Ignatieff is a prominent public intellectual who has held positions at some of North America’s and Europe’s most well-regarded institutions, including Oxford, Harvard, the Canadian Parliament, and the BBC. Yet his book finds glue for our fractured world in what he calls the ordinary virtues: trust, honesty, politeness, forbearance, and respect.

“His premise is so basic and so brilliant that it wholeheartedly embodies the Zócalo Book Prize,” explained one of our judges. “His observation of the forces and virtues that allow us to live side by side, and the hierarchy of our morality and treatment of others, gave me a deeper understanding of intrinsic human virtues and how they transcend religion and geography to help people live their lives.”

Another judge was drawn to the book’s optimism, calling The Ordinary Virtues “a very insightful examination into how, as humans, we manage to work outside of ourselves, with virtue.” Indeed, Ignatieff shows us that while “the institutional structures of a society are important, it is individual virtues that can help heal a divided world.”

Ignatieff came to this conclusion over the course of three years of travel to eight countries, from Brazil and Bosnia to South Africa and Myanmar. He focused on communities that had undergone different stresses amid globalization, including nuclear disaster in Fukushima, corruption and poverty in Rio de Janeiro, and riots and gang violence in Los Angeles. In each of these places, he asked the same question he’ll be addressing at the eighth annual Zócalo Book Prize Lecture: “Are Ordinary Virtues More Powerful Than Universal Values?”

Ignatieff will deliver the lecture and accept the prize, which includes a $5,000 award, on May 22 at the National Center for the Preservation Democracy in downtown Los Angeles. Please see more details on the award ceremony here.

We asked him to tell us more about these virtues and how they play out both in communities and in conjunction with universal values:

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