Isaiah Berlin: A Life

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Isaiah Berlin was one of the great thinkers and most electrifying speakers of his time. A magnetic public intellectual and beacon of liberal philosophy, he gained astonishing first-hand experience of some of the pivotal events of the twentieth century. Berlin refused to write an autobiography, but he did agree to talk about himself: in the last decade of his life, he allowed acclaimed writer Michael Ignatieff to interview him about his past, his ideas, his intimate memories and innermost conflicts.

The result is a magisterial biography that penetrates deeply into Berlin's life and thought while capturing his captivating, vivid style of conversation. We learn of Berlin's Russian childhood during the Bolshevik Revolution, his happiness as a scholar at Oxford and later work in Washington D.C. during the Second World War; and we hear unforgettable anecdotes of encounters with Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill and Boris Pasternak. Reissued in a revised and updated edition, Isaiah Berlin charts one man's journey to becoming one of his century's most vigorous defenders of liberty and individuality in the face of tyranny and dogma.

Reviews

'Reading Ignatieff's Isaiah Berlin, you feel you are understanding not only Isaiah Berlin, but the history... I do not see how there could be a more insightful, more erudite, biography of this remarkable man' - Doris Lessing

'A work of literature and an eloquent portrait... Though Berlin will be the subject of many future studies, one cannot imagine anyone feeling the need to improve on this biography' - Observer

'Enthralling... An affectionate and admiring, but none the less independently-minded portrait... A serious book, but also a vivid, lively and uplifting one' - Evening Standard

'A rare gem of a book...It will add a new dimension to the afterlife of the philosopher' - Sunday Times

Author Bio

Michael Ignatieff is a writer, historian and former politician. He has taught at Cambridge, Oxford, the University of Toronto and Harvard and is currently university professor at Central European University in Vienna. His books, which have been translated into twelve languages, include Blood and Belonging, Isaiah Berlin, The Needs of Strangers and The Russian Album, all published or forthcoming with Pushkin Press, and On Consolation.