Description
Book SynopsisIsaiah Berlin was one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century a man who set ideas on fire. His defence of liberty and plurality was passionate and persuasive and inspired a generation. His ideas especially his reasoned rejection of excessive certainty and political despotism have become even more prescient and vital today.
But who was the man behind such influential views? In Search of Isaiah Berlin tells the compelling story of a decades-long collaboration between Berlin and his editor, Henry Hardy, who made it his vocation to bring Berlin''s huge body of work into print. Hardy discovered that Berlin had written far more than people thought, much of it unpublished. As he describes his struggles with Berlin, who was almost on principle unwilling to have his work published, an intimate and revealing picture of the self-deprecating philosopher emerges. This is a unique portrait of a man who gave us a new way of thinking about the human predicament, and whose work h
Trade Review
The new perspective on an important intellectual figure is of great value. * Publishers Weekly *
A touching and often fascinating memoir ... Hardy has done much to preserve the ideas and, indeed, the memory of an extraordinary man for posterity. * Literary Review *
The intellectual thrill of the accuracy of a footnote is the stuff of this work. * The Irish Times *
Written with passion, wit, and verve, […] an invitation to reread a major thinker whose ideas remain relevant today. -- Aurelian Craitu * Los Angeles Review of Books *
A hugely enjoyable and accessible account of the relationship between the two men. -- David Herman * Jewish Chronicle *
A wonderful book on a wonderful subject. -- John Banville
Henry Hardy, the main editor of Isaiah Berlin, has invented a new genre, a sort of “making-of” for academic publishing. -- Mario Clemens * The Berlin Review of Books *
A concise yet comprehensive account of Isaiah Berlin’s thinking. * The Browser *
An extraordinary book, In Search of Isaiah Berlin relates the story of a twentyfive-year collaboration between Isaiah Berlin and his editor, Henry Hardy, told via previously unpublished letters that are as delightful as they are revealing of Berlin’s personality and ideas. -- Michael Ignatieff, author of Isaiah Berlin: A Life
Henry Hardy’s special vantage point as Berlin’s long-standing editor makes In Search of Isaiah Berlin a peculiarly authentic and vivid picture of the twentieth century’s greatest liberal thinker. -- John Gray, Emeritus Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Preface Abbreviations Introduction: The Genius and the Pedant 1. The Beginning Making Books 2. A Project is Born 3. Philosophical Letters, or, Cold Feet 4. Selected Writings 5. An Unremarkable Decade 6. The Crooked Timber of Humanity 7. The Magus of the North 8. The Sense of Reality Probing Ideas 9. Not Angels or Lunatics: Berlin on Human Nature 10. Pluralism and Religion 11. The Moral Core and the Human Horizon 12. The End 13. Epilogue Appendix: A Posthumous Letter to Berlin References and Asides Select Biographical Glossary Index
