304 pages Basic Books Publication Date: September 2004 Hardcover ISBN: 0465051316

Starting with 9/11 and continuing with the quagmire in Iraq, the West was 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 very challenge--and for healing a still violently fractured world. We will only succeed in building a more harmonious world order, Novak argues, if we embrace the fundamental role of human liberty--as conceived by our Judeo-Christian founding fathers--in bringing about historical change. Can we also find Islamic grounds for political, economic, and religious liberty--and thereby, ensure a safe future for people in all corners of the globe? For Novak, the answer is a decided yes, and this book is a bold step forward in our thinking about the role we--collectively as the United States, and individually as believers in the gospel of freedom and human rights--should play in bringing that vision to fruition. Not since his pivotal The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism has Novak made such an urgent and needed call for the importance of democracy, capitalism, and religious freedom.

Michael Novak is the George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy and the director of social and political studies at AEI.