Book description
Isaiah Berlin is regarded by many as one of the greatest historians of
ideas of his time. In
The Crooked Timber of Humanity
, he argues passionately, eloquently, and subtly, that what he calls
'the Great Goods' of human aspiration - liberty, justice, equality - do
not cohere and never can. Pluralism and variety of thought are not
avoidable compromises, but the glory of civilisation. In an age of
increasing ideological fundamentalism and intolerance we need to listen
to Isaiah Berlin more carefully than ever before.
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.
