Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas - Softcover

Berlin, Isaiah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712666907 ISBN 13: 9780712666909

Publisher: Pimlico, 1997

Synopsis

Berlin's main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of ideas of dissenters whose thinking still challenges 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 pubication has been updated for this Pimlico edition.

About this title

Review:

"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" (Encounter)

"Berlin expounds with idea of half-forgotten thinkers with luminous clarity and imaginative empathy... exhilirating to read" (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)

Book Description:

Berlin's main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of thought of dissenters whose ideas still challenge conventional wisdom.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pimlico
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0712666907
• ISBN 13: 9780712666909
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464