Few writers have covered the intellectual terrain traversed by Michael Novak, who has written on theology, philosophy, political economy, and business theory. This book brings together many of Novak's crucial essays on "moral ecology": the ethos that must be cultivated and preserved if liberal democratic societies are to survive. Novak argues in defense of the free and virtuous society by examining the family, welfare reform, free markets, self-government, and the American founding. A series of remarkable intellectual studies on figures such as Jacques Maritain, St. Thomas Aquinas, and John Courtney Murray, along with an autobiographical essay by Novak and an introduction by Brian C. Anderson, complete On Cultivating Liberty, an indispensable book for anyone concerned about the future of the democratic project as we enter the third millennium.

"This collection of Michael's Novak's 'best essays' is a necessary resource for those interested in the mature thought of this important thinker. ...the final essay, Errands into the Wilderness, covers some of the same ground as the essay Controversial Engagements from an interestingly different angle." - First Things, May, 1999

"Novak is well known as a defender of democratic capitalism. The pieces in this collection are intended to situate that defense in a larger context." - Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 29, No. 2

"Novak's suggestions for preserving and improving regimes of liberty is still another fine contribution to the growing list of theorists attempting to grapple with the slide of liberty into individual and collective relativism and even nihilism." - The Journal Of Religion