Moral Ambition

The antidote to apathy from the internationally bestselling author and 2025 BBC Reith lecturer Rutger Bregman

The Sunday Times bestseller

"A fierce and brilliant call to arms for anyone who has been wondering whether there's more to life. (There is.) Bregman wants to change you, and he just might succeed. This is a wonderfully dangerous book" — Tim Harford

"Gives us hope, humour and guidance at a time when all are in short supply" — Timothy Snyder

The average full-time worker will spend 80,000 hours at their job: are you making the most of them? Do you truly believe in what you do, day in, day out? Every day we're bombarded with methods, mantras and life hacks that promise us wellness and prosperity, while time and talent remain some of our most squandered resources.

What if you want to do something more with your limited time on the planet?

With moral ambition – the will to make the world a wildly better place – internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman shows us we can be both idealistic and successful, and change the world along the way. Uncovering the qualities that made the great change-makers of history so effective, he shows how we too can lend our talents to the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to inequality to the next pandemic. With moral ambition, we can do more than be on the right side of history: we can make history itself.

This book won't make your life easier, but it should make it more meaningful. The question is: what will you do with it?

Moral Ambition is a must-read for anyone wondering what they should do with their working life, how to find their purpose and how to find something more worthwhile to do with their skills and talents.

As the 2025 BBC Reith Lecturer, Rutger Bregman presented 'Moral Revolution', a four part series:

• A Time of Monsters
• How To Start a Moral Revolution
• A Realist's Utopia
• Zoom Out

Available to listen on BBC Four