In a comprehensive survey of civic society, Selbourne stakes out the ground of new politics and ethics, founded not upon rights but upon duties: the duties of the citizen to society and of society to the citizen. The text contains a powerful criticism of the corrupted liberal order, of its rights, privileges, demands and aspirations, as well as setting the agenda for a new civic social-ism of the future. This volume carries Selbourne's ethical critique into the realms of political, philosophical writing, rooted in the classical tradition, but addressed directly to the ills of our time.