Product Description

Sir Isaiah Berlin was one of the most formidable defenders of philosophical liberalism and distinguished practitioners of the history of ideas. Renowned all over the world for his analysis of ideologies which have influenced or transformed society, Berlin discusses, in these eight essays, the meaning and significance of utopianism, cultural history, relativism, Fascism, romanticism, nationalism, and explores the conditions which have allowed these ideals to flourish and those which have threatened them. A staunch advocate of pluralism during a century in which totalitarians and utopians claimed title to the one, single truth, Berlin questions the notion that there can be one final answer to organizing human society which would not lead to bloodshed, coercion, and deprivation of liberty. In line with his political and philosophical positions, these essays are bound together by a firm rejection of tidy answers to the great social and political problems of the twentieth-century which continue to loom so largely today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76189 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Berlin's supreme gift is his capacity to enter the minds of the thinkers who have ushered in the great sea changes of the Western mind. He has restored the history of ideas to its true place as a key to unlock the past and explain the present. His is a notable achievement, and this book sustains it.' Raymond Carr, Spectator

From the Publisher
'Berlin's supreme gift is his capacity to enter the minds of the thinkers who have ushered in the great sea changes of the Western mind. He has restored the history of ideas to its true place as a key to unlock the past and explain the present. His is a n

About the Author
Sir Isaiah Berlin, O.M., was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1909. He came to England in 1919 and was educated at St Paul's School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was a Fellow of New College (1938-50), Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory (1957-67), first President of Wolfson College (1966-75), a Fellow of All Souls College, and President of the British Academy from 1974-1978. His books include Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (1997), The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and their History (1997), Personal Impressions (1998), The Proper Study of Mankind: An Anthology of Essays (1998), Concepts and Categories: Philosophical Essays (1999), The Roots of Romanticism (2000), Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder (2000), The Power of Ideas (2001), and Freedom and its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty (2002), all published by Pimlico. His achievements as a historian and exponent of ideas earned him the Erasmus, Lippincott, and Agnelli Prizes, and his lifelong defence of civil liberties earned him the Jerusalem Prize. He died in 1997. Henry Hardy, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is one of Isaiah Berlin's Literary Trustees. He has edited several other books by Berlin, and is currently preparing a selection of his letters for publication.

Customer Reviews

Tempting for the mind...
My human rights professor recommended this book, and she was absolutely right. It is that kind of a book that makes you change your way of thinking about things, whether you agree with the Berlin or not. It shows you how some people are gifter, or do enough effort to see what is beyond the obvious. I have spent some time reading and repeating few chapters in the book. It talks about Utupias in such a way that makes one rethink the immediate astonishment by their concept and see how even what is designed to be perfect has its many imperfections. It also discusses several other things like utalitarianism and other human behaviours.
I must say that it is not the easiest reading on earth, it gave me a hard time understanding the complex meanings behind deep ideas and complicated language.

human paradoxes well explained
An excellent and understable book for all which are no professional philosophers or historicians but want to know. Doing easy the difficult is the most of the merit. Perhaps as with another books, some author's opinions and over all, sigths about the future are discusable, but I think is very good and rare to find such an intellectual authority.