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Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997)

Author of Karl Marx: His Life and Environment

63+ Works 8,024 Members 86 Reviews 27 Favorited

About the Author

Philosopher, political theorist, and essayist, Isaiah Berlin was born in 1909 to Russian-speaking Jewish parents in Latvia. Reared in Latvia and later in Russia, Berlin developed a strong Russian-Jewish identity, having witnessed both the Social-Democratic and the Bolshevik Revolutions. At the age show more of 12, Berlin moved with his family to England, where he attended prep school and then St. Paul's. In 1928, he went up as a scholar to Corpus Christi College in Oxford. After an unsuccessful attempt at the Manchester Guardian, Berlin was offered a position as lecturer in philosophy at New College. Almost immediately, he was elected to a fellowship at All Souls. During this time at All Souls, Berlin wrote his brilliant biographical study of Marx, titled Karl Marx: His Life and Environment (1939), for the Home University Library. Berlin continued to teach through early World War II, and was then sent to New York by the Ministry of Information, and subsequently to the Foreign Office in Washington, D.C. It was during these years that he drafted several fine works regarding the changing political mood of the United States, collected in Washington Despatches 1941-1945 (1981). By the end of the war, Berlin had shifted his focus from philosophy to the history of ideas, and in 1950 he returned to All Souls. In 1957, he was elected to the Chichele Chair of Social and Political Theory, delivering his influential and best-known inaugural lecture, Two Concepts of Liberty. Some of his works include Liberty, The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism, Flourishing: Selected Letters 1928 - 1946, Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought, and Unfinished Dialogue, Prometheus. Berlin died in Oxford on November 5, 1997. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo of Isaiah Berlin by Mats Lund

Series

Works by Isaiah Berlin

Four Essays on Liberty (1969) 701 copies
Russian Thinkers (1978) 692 copies
The Roots of Romanticism (1999) 415 copies
The Power of Ideas (2000) 214 copies
Personal impressions (1980) 213 copies
Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (1991) — Author — 110 copies
The First and the Last (1733) 66 copies
Two Concepts of Liberty (1958) 65 copies
Historical inevitability (1953) 46 copies
Tolstoy and History (1996) — Author — 46 copies
Chaim Weizmann (1958) 26 copies
Mr. Churchill in 1940 (1949) 24 copies
Building: Letters 1960-1975 (2013) 22 copies
Unfinished Dialogue (2006) 10 copies
Essays on J.L. Austin (1973) 9 copies
Fathers and Children (1972) 4 copies
Valik esseid (1997) 4 copies
Montesquieu 1 copy
Eloge de la liberté (1994) 1 copy
all 1 copy

Associated Works

The Prince (1513) — Medarb., some editions — 23,480 copies
On Liberty (1859) — Introduction, some editions — 5,514 copies
First Love (1860) — Translator, some editions — 1,465 copies
The Philosophy of History in Our Time (1959) — Contributor — 217 copies
Granta 30: New Europe (1990) — Contributor — 145 copies
First Love and Other Stories (2001) — Translator — 136 copies
Considerations on France (1797) — Introduction, some editions — 133 copies
The Jewish Writer (1998) — Contributor — 52 copies
The Mind of the European Romantics: An Essay in Cultural History (1966) — Preface, some editions — 47 copies
Philosophy, Politics and Society: Second Series (1962) — Contributor — 35 copies
Revolutionary Russia: A Symposium (1968) — Contributor — 14 copies
Founders and Followers (1992) — Introduction — 12 copies
Vapaus (2018) 2 copies

Tagged

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Common Knowledge

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Reviews

A profound essay with reaching insights to Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
 
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Aidan767 | 5 other reviews | Feb 1, 2024 |
 
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susangeib | Sep 17, 2023 |
 
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luvucenanzo06 | 1 other review | Sep 7, 2023 |
Probably a good book to read if you don't have time to finish War and Peace (always good to have and start this classic).

I know I should finish it, but .......
½
 
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Nick-Myra | 5 other reviews | Mar 25, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
63
Also by
17
Members
8,024
Popularity
#3,020
Rating
3.8
Reviews
86
ISBNs
355
Languages
24
Favorited
27

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