Against the Current – Essays in the History of Ideas – Second Edition - Softcover

Berlin, Isaiah; Hardy, Henry; Hausheer, Roger; Lilla, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691156107 ISBN 13: 9780691156101

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2013

Synopsis

In this outstanding collection of essays, Isaiah Berlin, one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, discusses the importance of dissenters in the history of ideas--among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen, and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, Berlin brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times--and still challenge conventional wisdom. In a new foreword to this corrected edition, which also includes a new appendix of letters in which Berlin discusses and further illuminates some of its topics, noted essayist Mark Lilla argues that Berlin's decision to give up a philosophy fellowship and become a historian of ideas represented not an abandonment of philosophy but a decision to do philosophy by other, perhaps better, means. "His instinct told him," Lilla writes, "that you learn more about an idea as an idea when you know something about its genesis and understand why certain people found it compelling and were spurred to action by it." This collection of fascinating intellectual portraits is a rich demonstration of that belief.

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."---Goronwy Rees, Encounter

"Isaiah Berlin was the most esteemed intellectual figure in the English-speaking world. Against the Current may be the most representative of [his] books."---Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

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

"A Jewish refugee from Bolshevik Russia who found a home in the British establishment, Isaiah Berlin was always drawn to the traffic between insiders and outsiders, between fugitive experiences and dominant norms. We see this attraction in these classic essays: not only in his article on nationalism, which he saw as the work of non-nationals, but also in his continuous effort to introduce strange figures into the canon and to make canonical figures strange. Paddling against the current, Berlin made us feel the full extent and depth of its force."--Corey Robin, City University of New York

"An excellent new edition. Mark Lilla's bracing foreword elegantly reminds philosophers why they need to read Berlin, and the judiciously chosen letters from Berlin's personal correspondence illuminate the thinking behind some of his most celebrated essays."--Jan-Werner Mueller, Princeton University

From the Back Cover:

"A Jewish refugee from Bolshevik Russia who found a home in the British establishment, Isaiah Berlin was always drawn to the traffic between insiders and outsiders, between fugitive experiences and dominant norms. We see this attraction in these classic essays: not only in his article on nationalism, which he saw as the work of non-nationals, but also in his continuous effort to introduce strange figures into the canon and to make canonical figures strange. Paddling against the current, Berlin made us feel the full extent and depth of its force."--Corey Robin, City University of New York

"An excellent new edition. Mark Lilla's bracing foreword elegantly reminds philosophers why they need to read Berlin, and the judiciously chosen letters from Berlin's personal correspondence illuminate the thinking behind some of his most celebrated essays."--Jan-Werner Mueller, Princeton University

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0691156107
• ISBN 13: 9780691156101
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 584