Against the Current - Couverture souple

Berlin, Isaiah

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0192830287 ISBN 13 : 9780192830289

Editeur : Clarendon Press, 1981

Synopsis

This is a collection of essays by Isaiah Berlin. His main theme is the importance in the history of thought of dissenters whose ideas still challenge conventional wisdom. Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Hamann, Herzen and Georges Sorel are the central examples. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation he brings to life the ideas of men with original minds who swam against the current of their times and often made entirely new contributions to our intellectual heritage. The book also constitutes a powerful defence of variety - of values, of interpretations of reality and visions of life. It is completed by a full bibliography of Isaiah Berlin's publications, updated for this edition. It is one of four volumes of "Selected Writings", which comprise a comprehensive collection of Berlin's work.

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture

'A most remarkable intellectual achievement. There are few books published in our time which more dazzlingly illuminate some of the most crucial problems of western culture and civilisation.' Goronwy Rees, Encounter

Berlin's main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of thought of dissenters whose ideas still challenge conventional wisdom - among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, he brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times, and in the process offers a powerful defence of variety in our visions of life. Roger Hausheer's introduction surveys Berlin's whole oeuvre, and the full bibliography of his publications has been updated for this pimlico edition.

'Berlin expounds the ideas of half-forgotten thinkers with luminous clarity and an imaginative empathy...exhilarating to read.' Keith Thomas, Observer

'The most imaginative, distinguished and erudite of historians of ideas in this country.' Anthony Quinton, Spectator

'Isaiah Berlin has a masterly grasp. He is one of the most concerned liberal minds in Europe.' V.S. Pritchett, New Statesman

'As a historian of ideas, he has no equal; and what he has to say is expressed in prose of exceptional lucidity and grace.' Anthony Storr, Independent on Sunday

Biographie de l'auteur

Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, in 1909. When he was six, his family moved to Russia, and in Petrograd in 1917 Berlin witnessed both Revolutions - Social Democratic and Bolshevik. In 1921 he and his parents emigrated to England, where he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Apart from his war service in New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad, he remained at Oxford thereafter - as a Fellow of All Souls, then of New College, as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, and as founding President of Wolfson College. He also held the Presidency of the British Academy.

His published work includes Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers, Concepts and Categories, Against the Current, Personal Impressions, The Sense of Reality, The Proper Study of Mankind, The Roots of Romanticism, The Power of Ideas, Three Critics of the Enlightenment, Freedom and Its Betrayal, Liberty, The Soviet Mind and Political Ideas in the Romantic Age. As an exponent of the history of ideas he was awarded the Erasmus, Lippincott and Agnelli Prizes; he also received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties. He died in 1997.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Clarendon Press
• Date d'édition: 1981
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0192830287
• ISBN 13: 9780192830289
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 448
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie