Generations of students and educated citizens will be very well served by Sandel’s introductory overviews.” (Amitai Etzioni, Hedgehog Review) “His ability to find the broad issues at the heart of everyday concerns verges on the uncanny, and his lucid explanations of classic figures such as Mill, Kant, and Aristotle are worth the price of admission.” (William A. Sandel's insistence on the inescapably ethical character of political debate is enormously refreshing.” (Edward Skidelsky, New Statesman) This accounts for one of the most striking and attractive features of Justice-its use of examples drawn from real legal and political controversies…. Like Aristotle, he seeks to systematize educated common sense, not to replace it with expert knowledge or abstract principles. Sandel belongs to the tradition, dating back to ancient Greece, which sees moral philosophy as an outgrowth and refinement of civic debate.
“Michael Sandel transforms moral philosophy by putting it at the heart of civic debate…. Politicians and commentators tend to ask two questions of policy: will it make voters better off, and will it affect their liberty? Sandel rightly points out the shallowness of that debate and adds a third criterion: how will it affect the common good?” ( Guardian)
“Michael Sandel is…one of the world's most interesting political philosophers. Sparkling commentary from the professor we all wish we had.” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review) “Using a compelling, entertaining mix of hypotheticals, news stories, episodes from history, pop-culture tidbits, literary examples, legal cases and teachings from the great philosophers-principally, Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, Mill and Rawls-Sandel takes on a variety of controversial issues-abortion, same-sex marriage, affirmative action-and forces us to confront our own assumptions, biases and lazy thought…. This is such a book.” (Jeffrey Abramson, Texas Law Review) “Every once in a while, a book comes along of such grace, power, and wit that it enthralls us with a yearning to know what justice is. Justice is a timely plea for us to desist from political bickering and see if we can have a sensible discussion about what sort of society we really want to live in.” (Jonathan Ree, The Observer (London)) “Hard cases may make bad law, but in Michael Sandel’s hands they produce some cool philosophy…. " Justice, the new volume from superstar Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel, showcases the thinking on public morality that has made him one of the most sought-after lecturers in the world." (Richard Reeves, Democracy) He ends up clarifying a basic political divide - not between left and right, but between those who recognize nothing greater than individual rights and choices, and those who affirm a ‘politics of the common good,' rooted in moral beliefs that can't be ignored.” (Michael Gerson, Washington Post) But Sandel is best at what he calls bringing ‘moral clarity to the alternatives we confront as democratic citizens ’…. “Michael Sandel, perhaps the most prominent college professor in America…practices the best kind of academic populism, managing to simplify John Stuart Mill and John Rawls without being simplistic. He is calling for nothing less than a reinvigoration of citizenship.” (Samuel Moyn, The Nation) For Michael Sandel, justice is not a spectator sport…. Erudite, conversational and deeply humane, this is truly transformative reading.” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review) “Sandel dazzles in this sweeping survey of hot topics…. In terms we can all understand, ‘Justice’ confronts us with the concepts that lurk, so often unacknowledged, beneath our conflicts.” (Jonathan Rauch, New York Times) “Sandel explains theories of justice…with clarity and immediacy the ideas of Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Robert Nozick and John Rawls have rarely, if ever, been set out as accessibly…. "More than exhilarating exciting in its ability to persuade this student/reader, time and again, that the principle now being invoked-on this page, in this chapter-is the one to deliver the sufficiently inclusive guide to the making of a decent life." (Vivian Gornick, Boston Review)