Product Description

The essays collected in this new volume reveal Isaiah Berlin at his most lucid and accessible. He was constitutionally incapable of writing with the opacity of the specialist, but these shorter, more introductory pieces provide the perfect starting-point for the reader new to his work. Those who are already familiar with his writing will also be grateful for this further addition to his collected essays.

The connecting theme of these essays, as in the case of earlier volumes, is the crucial social and political role--past, present and future--of ideas, and of their progenitors. A rich variety of subject-matters is represented--from philosophy to education, from Russia to Israel, from Marxism to romanticism--so that the truth of Heine's warning is exemplified on a broad front. It is a warning that Berlin often referred to, and provides an answer to those who ask, as from time to time they do, why intellectual history matters.

Among the contributions are "My Intellectual Path," Berlin's last essay, a retrospective autobiographical survey of his main preoccupations; and "Jewish Slavery and Emancipation," the classic statement of his Zionist views, long unavailable in print. His other subjects include the Enlightenment, Giambattista Vico, Vissarion Belinsky, Alexander Herzen, G.V. Plekhanov, the Russian intelligentsia, the idea of liberty, political realism, nationalism, and historicism. The book exhibits the full range of his enormously wide expertise and demonstrates the striking and enormously engaging individuality, as well as the power, of his own ideas.

"Over a hundred years ago, the German poet Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas: philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor's study could destroy a civilization."--Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321828 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
If he did nothing else, Berlin put the ideas back into history. . . . This posthumous collection, containing some of his best work, show how seriously he took the task of inspiring the general reader. -- Review

Review
Berlin's views on such disparate topics as Marxism, romanticism, liberty and Zionism are all covered in this excellent collection of his essays. . . . Ideas aren't what they used to be, but there is no one better able than Berlin to relate their glorious and not so glorious history. Each of the essays fulfils Raymond Carver's criterion for the short story: to leave the reader's body temperature a degree higher or lower than when the book was opened.
(Nicholas Fearn The Independent )

A volume which covers the key areas of Berlin's interests in an unusually accessible way; it will take its place as, quite simply, the best short introduction to his thinking. . . . [A]ll the arguments most closely associated with Berlin--above all, about freedom and human values--can be found here. . . .
(Noel Malcolm Sunday Telegraph )

The collection is thoroughly eclectic and engaging to read. You never know what the next morsel will taste of and, like a delectable plate of appetisers, the variety whets the appetite.
(Judith Armstrong Australian's Review of Books )

If he did nothing else, Berlin put the ideas back into history. . . . This posthumous collection, containing some of his best work, show how seriously he took the task of inspiring the general reader.
(Daniel Johnson The Daily Telegraph )

Review
The Power of Ideas ... captures, in crystalline fashion, not just the power of ideas in history but the utility of Berlin's own ideas in understanding what is happening today in the world.
(Strobe Talbott, author of "At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War" )

Customer Reviews

NOT THE BEST WORK OF BERLIN.
First, let me say that this is a selection of Berlin editorials, arranged by Henry Hardy.
The title is a quotation from Heine, who warned the French not to undervalue the power of ideas, since philosophical concepts nurtured in the peace of a library can destroy a civilization.
Under this auspices, it seemed a very interesting theme: how the history of ideas has reflected upon, challenged and ultimately changed reality. The unseen code of reality.
But the outcome is not par to the expectations. Well, Berlin is a first class philosopher and always highly entertaining. But the arrangement made here is at least a little haphazard: an attempt of intellectual autobiography (written in old age), editorials about history of philosophy, about the Russian late `800 intellectual environment, about socialism and Marxism, some incomplete considerations about freedom, editorials about Zionism and the birth of the State of Israel.....
Too much indeed and too many themes.
The best parts are the one dedicated to history of philosophy, since Berlin is one of those rare writers who is able to cast an entirely new light on the arguments he decides to investigate: the appraisal of Enlightenment is excellent (especially as Age of Mechanics opposed to the Age of Mathematics in the XVII Century), as well the essay about the purposes of Philosophy and one on the essence of European Romanticism (on this argument the best book is still his "The Roots of Romanticism", I warmly recommend). But, these are pearls scattered here and there with no apparent order.
Better would have been to focus it much more on a restricted number of arguments.

I'm a curious and voracious reader. If you have suggestion for further readings, better still... you don't agree with what I write, or just want to say hallo... feel free to write.

A demonstration of the power of ideas in uplifting the human spirit
This book contains essays on a diverse set of topics by the great modern master of the History of Ideas, Isaiah Berlin.
The opening essays in which he traces his intellectual path as a philosopher are of the highest possible interest. For we learn how Berlin came in the thirties to meet with those purists who insisted a a statement to be meaningful had to be verifiable. Berlin traces his own reservations from a narrow Logical Positivism into the broad study of the History of Ideas. He tells the story of how commissioned to write a work on Karl Marx he came to investigate his predecessors, and was led to those European Enlightentment thinkers the interpretation of whose work became one central contribution of his own to modern thought. Helvetius, Holbach, de Maistre, Condorcet, were the subject of explorations in understanding passionate thinkers whose ultimate models for Ideal Political Reality he would have reservations from, but who generally he would have great sympathy for.
Another important section of the work has to do with Berlin's relation to the rise of modern Israel, to Zionism, and to his own great mentor, the great scientist and first President of Israel, Chaim Weizmann.
Berlin's writing is characterized by vigor and human insight, by sudden sweeps of thought which dazzle and brighten. He is a wonderful writer and thinker.
There is not a work of his I would not highly recommend. And this is no exception.