Bestseller Bregman finds a home at Bloomsbury with Moral Ambition

Bloomsbury has signed a "fact-based, no bullshit" book on being moral by historian and Humankind author Rutger Bregman.

Alexis Kirschbaum, head of Bloomsbury Trade, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, and audio rights from Milou Klein Lankhorst of De Correspondent. Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Build a Legacy that Matters is slated for publication in 2025.

Described as "Bregman’s most ambitious book to date", Moral Ambition "a manifesto for a new movement", the publisher said. "Many pioneers have already dedicated their careers to the greatest challenges of our time. Moral Ambition asks every reader, personally, to follow in their footsteps. By doing so, we will not only transform our own lives but reveal how committed citizens can help make the world a better place for everyone."

Kirschbaum said: "Rutger has a way of taking the most earnest idea in the world and applying a fact-based, no-bullshit framework to it. This approach allows him to be serious and moral, but also to outfox and out-argue and outmanoeuvre his most cynical opponents. It’s a thrill to read and a thrill to behold.

"Moral Ambition takes on the challenge of being moral and turns that into an ambition. Only Rutger could make this into a global movement, which is his plan. It’s completely brilliant, and we will publish it with the utmost ambition and belief."

The Netherlands-born Bregman is a historian whose first book for general readers, Utopia for Realists, was an international success, boosted after he gave a 2017 Ted Talk on breaking out of poverty which went viral. Utopia for Realists has since been sold into 32 languages. His Humankind has been a consistent bestseller since it was published in 2020. In the UK it has shifted over £2m through Nielsen BookScan.   

Bregman said: "This is an almost embarrassingly ambitious book that aims to be the start of a new movement and the guide to a new lifestyle. I can’t dream of a better team [than Bloomsburyh] to fuel this fire in the UK and the Commonwealth."