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A blind eye

The allure of not knowing
by
August 2025, no. 478

Ignorance and Bliss: On wanting not to know by Mark Lilla

Hurst, $49.99 pb, 256 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

A blind eye

The allure of not knowing
by
August 2025, no. 478

Every now and then, a truly profound book appears on a profoundly important subject. Mark Lilla’s Ignorance and Bliss is one such book.

Lilla’s name might not be familiar to many Australian readers. The author of several scholarly works of history concerning Western political and religious thought, he is best known in the northern hemisphere as a regular contributor to TheNew York Review of Books, the New York Times and Liberties (a newish non-partisan online journal that publishes serious and controversial essays about significant issues in culture and politics). Some Australians might have read Lilla’s previous book, The Once and Future Liberal (2017), a bracing polemic about identity politics. A liberal, he is troubled by the turn taken by progressive politics in the United States.

Ignorance and Bliss: On wanting not to know

Ignorance and Bliss: On wanting not to know

by Mark Lilla

Hurst, $49.99 pb, 256 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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