The Crooked Timber Of Humanity by Isaiah Berlin

The Crooked Timber Of Humanity by Isaiah Berlin

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.

"Berlin has restored the history of ideas to its true place as a key to unlock the past and explain the presentHis is a notable achievement, and this book sustains it" -- Raymond Carr * Spectator *
"The truest and the most moving of all interpretations of life that my own generation made" -- Noel Annan
"To read Isaiah Berlin is above all to listening to a voice, effervescent, quizzical, often self-mocking, but always full of gaiety and amusement" -- John Dunn * Times Literary Supplement *
"As a historian of ideas, he has no equal; and what he has to say is expressed in prose of exceptional lucidity and grace" -- Anthony Storr * Independent *

Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, in 1909. When he was six, his family moved to Russia, and in Petrograd in 1917 Berlin witnessed both Revolutions - Social Democratic and Bolshevik. In 1921 he and his parents emigrated to England, where he was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Apart from his war service in New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad, he remained at Oxford thereafter - as a Fellow of All Souls, then of New College, as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, and as founding President of Wolfson College. He also held the Presidency of the British Academy. His published work includes Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers, Concepts and Categories, Against the Current, Personal Impressions, The Sense of Reality, The Proper Study of Mankind, The Roots of Romanticism, The Power of Ideas, Three Critics of the Enlightenment, Freedom and Its Betrayal, Liberty, The Soviet Mind and Political Ideas in the Romantic Age. As an exponent of the history of ideas he was awarded the Erasmus, Lippincott and Agnelli Prizes; he also received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties. He died in 1997.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780712606165
ISBN 10	0712606165
Title	The Crooked Timber Of Humanity
Author	Isaiah Berlin
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2003-09-04
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable