Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (Pimlico) by Isaiah Berlin (PDF)

Description

Berlin’s main theme in these essays is the importance in the history of ideas of dissenters whose thinking still challenges conventional wisdom – among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, he brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times, and in the process offers a powerful defence of variety in our visions of life. Roger Hausheer’s introduction surveys Berlin’s whole oeuvre, and the full bibliography of his pubication has been updated for this Pimlico edition.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Berlin’s essays are always a pleasure to read, insightful and unpredictable, and this collection is no exception. Some of these essays have appeared in other collections, and I enjoyed them the second time around too. The history of ideas is a richly rewarding field of intellectual endeavor, but it unfortunately doesn’t attract many who can write as well they think they can think. Berlin is one of the best. In contrast, Peter Watson’s recent thick volume

⭐]] seems shallow and hurried.

⭐These are monumental essays that bring the philosophy of history into our real politik–an insightful view of issues that are as current now as they were 100 years ago. Brilliant!

⭐My grandfather loves this book.

⭐I did not read the entire book, so I cannot generalize, but I have no doubt that Berlin provides very important information on the topics he investigated during his long scholarly life. However, I would recommend caution regarding some of his interpretations regarding the Storm and Stress movement. I have been reading extensively on the matter and I find the thesis about the so-called Counter-Enlightenment not persuasive.Since Berlin’s opening essay is largely responsible for diffusing the term Counter-Enlightenment, his is an essay that I have read and reread several times. Berlin’s assertion of Herder as the faithful disciple of Georg Hamman is misleading. I am basing my point on Robert T. Clark’s monumental biography of Herder published by the University of California Press in 1955. I do consider that up to this day Clark is the most reliable source on Herder and the Sturm und Drang movement. Norbert Elias’s opening chapter of The Civilizing Process also provides additional information regarding the idea that the so-called German Counter-Enlightenment was a direct reaction against the French Enlightenment, which is Mr. Berlin’s thesis. I still have some additional objections to the essay on the Counter-Enlightenment, but the ones I have mentioned are sufficient for stating my reservation regarding Mr. Berlin’s interpretation of the historical meaning of the Storm and Stress movement.

⭐Just wonderful stuff … clearly written, jargon-free, important ideas about the way we look at the world. Some of the essays are somewhat obscure in terms of their topics, but still, well worth reading.And “The Crooked Timber of Humanity” may be even better.

⭐If you think the present world is full of contradictions, of opposing philosophies, and that it might be doomed, please give a chance at this set of essais by Isaiah Berlin. Not only his writing is clear and flowing, but his argumentation is very enlightening. Isaiah Berlin will never be controversial. He will never take a strong position. He will let you decide. Like an archeologist, he put back to life the ideas who were considered crazy at their time, and now looked much more reasonable. Even the introduction by Roger Hausheer gives you a lecherous taste of what is inside. And I was not disappointed. Thinking that there are ten more books on essays by Berlin, my head is spining. Did he not say already everything in this one…?

⭐”Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas” has long been out of print and is hard to find in the used market. I wish some publisher would reprint it–I’m sure it would sell well. It was my introduction to this wonderful, careful, rational thinker and his ideas on pluralism, among many other topics. I’m not smart enough to summarize his thought for public consumption; you must read him for yourself. If you are a warm, loving, human being who is interested in how we got to our present intellectual condition, after reading him you will be a convert. Libraries often have “Against the Current,” but you can also find great riches in his other books, some of which Amazon.com will be happy to send to you. Put his name in Keyword Search and check out the numerous titles they carry. (No, I’m not a salesman, just a fan.) I can recommend “Crooked Timber of Humanity” as a good start. For a (still) fresh reading of the life of Karl Marx read Berlin’s biography of him. Enrich your life; READ ISAIAH BERLIN!!!

⭐One of the great, and certainly at least in some quarters most influential, books of historical/ philosophical/ social thinking of the century. An argument for liberal pluralism, not as an abstract theory, but as a pragmatic necessity in the absence of the possibility of theoretical justification. Berlin almost obsessively (except that obsessive is the last word you could imagine applying to Isaiah Berlin) reiterates implicitly, in a collection of, originally independently published, essays on European intellectual history, his ironically simple thesis that the world is complex and contradictory, and not reducible to the terms of simple moral, social or policial ideas. Further, his prose, which – like his thinking – is in the tradition of Hume and Diderot, makes him an unalloyed pleasure to read.

⭐Having read a few essays by Isaiah Berlin 30 years ago, I was inspired by Mark Lilla’s recent article in the New York Review of Books (April 25 2013) to revisit his work. I re-read his most known essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox”, and realized that it was necessary to renew the acquaintance. I am currently reading this collection of essays, and I marvel at the clarity of Berlin’s exposition. Murky ideas are analysed, and complicated relationships are investigated. His ability to visualize the long historical lines of ideas and arguments is breath-taking. His own view, that liberal values are manifold and not necessarily always compatible with each other, is part of the discussion, but does not dominate it. Berlin’s essays need to be read by anyone who cares about our civilization.

⭐Although I have heard extensively about Isaiah Berlin, this has been my first chance to dig into his thinking. In particular, Against the Current has been my first, and until now the only piece of his works I had the privilege to read so far.I read the book several years ago, and at the time I remember it left a positive mark on my reading experience, since it was for me the first historical reading of this kind, which managed to seamlessly mingle together distant ideas in a cohesive and coherent flow of information, far from a disjointed, encyclopedic analysis carried out in water-tight compartments.The book encompasses the development of ideas by different thinkers during different centuries, such as Giambattista Vico, Niccolo’ Machiavelli, Aleksandr Herzen, Moses Hess, Montesquieu and others.What makes the collection of essays stand out is Berlin’s capacity to show how the work of the aforementioned thinkers was somehow cast in the shadows during their lifetime, only to become a mainstream, leading thought in the centuries to come.Definitely an interesting reading

⭐Good copy, all in order.

⭐Brilliant service! 10/10

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