Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest logicians since Aristotle, and one of the most important philosophers of the past two hundred years. In this thorough examination, Alan Ryan tells the story of Russell's "other life" as social critic, polemical journalist, antiwar activist, sage and gadfly, dissenting from Russell's insistence that there was no connection between his philosophical interests and his political allegiances. Taking readers on an entertaining journey through a career that included two spells in jail, Ryan discusses Russell's most visible campaigns--against traditional religion, against the First World War, against nuclear weapons, and against the Vietnam War, as well as his lifelong defence of liberalism in education, politics, and relations between the sexes. Throughout he emphasizes the high spirits, the aristocratic fearlessness, and the wonderful combination of wit and intelligence that Russell brought to his political writing and actions. The result is a stimulating reconsideration of one of the great intellectual radicals of our time, a remarkable man who refused to grow old, calm down, and become respectable.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
This book is a critical evaluation of Russell's thought on politics and society and, above all, on war and peace. Sweeping over the full gamut of Russell's political thought, from his earliest book (on Marxism) in 1896 to his often hysterical criticisms of America during the Vietnam war, the narrative touches on religion, ethics, sex, marriage, child rearing, education, liberalism, socialism, nuclear disarmament, and world government. The writing is balanced and highly informedRyan is a professor of political science at Princetonrevealing how, despite some excesses, sympathy with the plight of mankind was always Russell's prime motivation. For general as well as academic collections. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
About the Author
Alan Ryan is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Social Explanation, Justice, and Essays on Thomas Hobbes, all published by Oxford.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Glimpse at a First-rate Mind Living in a Second-Rate World,
This review is from: Bertrand Russell: A Political Life (Paperback)
In Alan Ryan's book there is good, overdue criticism concerning Russell's view of world-government And on the subject of government in general, an interesting observation is that "Russell takes no interest in the creation of legal obstacles to government misbehaviour; he does not suggest a Bill of Rights, for instance. On the whole, Russell assumes throughout that what checks government is the power of social groups rather than the provisions of the legal system...". Russell's exact views on inheritance have always been of interest to me, but they can be confusing.As far as other biographers' reports are concerned, on one hand, one reads that "he rejects the institution of inheritance, and proudly earns his own living" and that "He had given away his inheritance because he thought it wrong to have such an unfair advantage" On the other hand, Russell himself explains that "While I was writing Principia Mathematica I felt justified in living on inherited money, though I did not feel justified in keeping an additional sum of capital that I inherited from my grandmother. I gave away this sum in its entirety...to various educational objects." There are also reports that "he...lived on the income...he had inherited at twenty-one," at that at the turn of the century, at least, "the kind of life led by Russell obviously depended on a small but sufficient independent income" I think this book provides the most concise description of the Russell and his inheritance saying that "He always treated his own money as a social fund,...not in the least alarmed at the prospect of earning his own living once it was gone." A point brought out in this book more than any other biography of Russell is that "For much of his life he plainly felt a contempt for uneducated people which is entirely at odds with the sentimental profession of solidarity with humanity's sufferings....Max Eastman recalled an alarming moment when Russell observed, after a very successful public debate in the 1920s, `Anyone who takes these debates of ours seriously must be an idiot.'...Russell was more vulnerable than most to the temptation to treat his readers like fools." Moreover, he evidently felt that the financial hardships of Beacon Hill School were such as to be "making him give pot-boiling lectures to stupid audiences and write silly little articles for American newspapers." I was interested in reading Ryan's accounts of how Russell loathed American universities as "departmental, hierarchical, uncollegiate places, dominated by the kind of professionalism which might be acceptable in a law firm but hardly in the groves of academe," and how "Russell was right to think Huxley had stolen almost every idea for his novel from him" Interesting tidbits I learned were that during his 1918 six-month prison term "He read 200 books and wrote two." He acknowledged "the social value of dancing," and that he was "something of a cinema addict." There is confirmation of his belief that "fresh air" is better for children than "towns," and that he "had always taken refuge in his passion for the sea and the mountains." Regrettably, there are reports about Russell that "Many men found him unbearable at close quarters." Also, this biography is quite clear about how Russell had "in 1892...a freedom from acrimony which would have tested...Russell himself in later life." In short, "Russell got angrier as he got older." Things don't seem to change much considering a statement like "what passed for American democracy in the 1920s and `30s was a sham where businessmen pulled the strings which made the politicians dance."
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Russell's foibles!,
By
This review is from: Bertrand Russell: A Political Life (Paperback)
I recall with pride the sure comfort, during the years of struggle against the American war in Vietnam, afforded by Bertrand Russell's pungent opposition to the same war for the same reasons, all of his astonishing intellectual gifts poised like a sword against the daily lies and betrayal of ideals perpetrated by Washington. While Russell's mathematical exegeses are beyond me, the thrust of his intellectual activity has remained attractive. This concise book (indeed thin, but not incomplete), while not diminishing that attraction, comes a bit like a diatribe exposing those elements of Russell's character that were no doubt conflicted, and yet were more likely an integral part of his intellectual capacity. Ryan's writing is informative, but not terribly appreciative. One feels distanced by Ryan's doubts, rather than educated by his conclusions. Clearly Russell was a complex fellow, inconstant and, in a certain respect, embittered by a life of singularity; it seems however that Ryan does little to penetrate the conflicts down to the bone of understanding them and integrating them into the whole picture of Russell's turbulent life, rather he presents the externals as elements sufficiently interesting in and of themselves, a disservice, I think, to one with a legacy as lingering and controversial as that of Bertrand Russell. The prose is intelligent and clear, and the volume is a typically attractive Oxford Univ. Press offering, small and supple, the presentation suiting the book's tone and content perfectly. I recommend this volume, but it's not everything it could have been.
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