The Human Odyssey: East, West and the Search for Universal Values

‘Erudite, bold and wide-ranging – a book that makes you think about knowledge, wisdom and what the future has in store.’ PETER FRANKOPAN

'A book of remarkable sweep and scope – not just learned, but deeply humane.' TOM HOLLAND

The long human odyssey of self-discovery has reached a crucial stage: everything we do affects everyone and everything else – and we know it. The next hundred years will bring more change than we can easily imagine: more opportunities for more people to achieve the fulfilment of a good life, and more risks that could result in catastrophic harm to the entire planet.

Viewed geopolitically, the main question is whether the world-views of the world’s most important and influential powers – China and America (the one fundamentally Confucian, the other essentially individualist) – can be made to work together constructively.

At the same time, on a deeper level, the even greater question is how the irreversible fact of urbanisation may nurture healthy and mature human individuality, such that the accumulated wisdom of the world’s great cultures becomes mutually transforming and enriching.

This bold and wide-ranging book explores those questions, with all the risks and opportunities they hold for generations still to come.