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Isaac and Isaiah: The Covert Punishment of a Cold War Heretic Hardcover – August 6, 2013


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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Yale University Press (August 6, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0300192096
  • ISBN-13: 978-0300192094
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,017,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Readers . . . will find themselves informed and absorbed by Mr. Caute's portrait of the intellectual battles of the Cold War.”—Adam Kirsch, Wall Street Journal
(Adam Kirsch Wall Street Journal)

“Engaging . . . an illuminating, interesting and entertaining book.”—Robert G. Kaiser, Washington Post
(Robert G. Kaiser Washington Post)

“What could have been a minor academic squabble is transformed here into a wide-ranging discussion of some of the major ideological disputes of the 20th century – Marxism, Zionism, liberalism and the significance of the Russian revolution.”—The Economist (The Economist 2013-12-07)

“Trenchant, engaging . . . sharply argued . . . The author’s wit and biting analysis render this a most readable study.”—Kirkus Reviews
(Kirkus Reviews)

“A riveting account . . . of an intellectual feud for the ages.”—David Mikics, Los Angeles Review of Books
(David Mikics Los Angeles Review of Books 2013-08-10)

 “As a picture of the intellectual life of half a century, Isaac and Isaiah is a beguiling guide, superbly written and never less than absorbing.”—Ferdinand Mount, The Spectator
(Ferdinand Mount The Spectator 2013-09-21)

“The strength of Caute’s book lies primarily in its interweaving of central ideological issues in the Cold War debate with pertinent biographical details concerning his two chief protagonists.”—Robert S. Wistrich, Standpoint Magazine
(Robert S. Wistrich Standpoint Magazine 2013-10-01)

“The book I most enjoyed was David Caute’s Isaac and Isaiah. Caute transforms an academic squabble between Isaiah Berlin and Isaac Deutscher into a wide-ranging analysis of the ideological disputes of the 20th century – Marxism, the significance of the Russian revolution, liberalism and Zionism.”—Vernon Bogdanor, THES, Book of the Year
(Vernon Bogdanor Times Higher Education Supplement 2013-12-19)

“Compelling. . . . Caute has done a superb job of capturing the world of Berlin and Deutscher in readable and lively prose.”—George Crowder, Review of Politics
(George Crowder Review of Politics)

Book Description

In this gripping account of the ideological clash between two of the most influential scholars of the Cold War years, the author uncovers a hidden act that cost one man a university chair while the other continued to be honored.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful By Ronald H. Clark VINE VOICE on August 15, 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I found this to be a most interesting book, as I believe anyone interested in Isaiah Berlin, the Cold War, and Russian Communism would. The focus of the book is the troubled relationship between Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997), the Oxford academic, and Isaac Deutscher (1907-1967), author of the magisterial three-volume biography of Trotsky. Specifically, the author demonstrates that Berlin used his position as academic adviser at Sussex University in 1963, to torpedo a proposed academic appointment for Deutscher at that institution. The author also demonstrates that Berlin played similar academic "dirty tricks" relative to Hannah Arendt because he disliked her book on the Eichmann trial.

Is this just a couple examples of academic politics, or something more? I was initially puzzled about the long-time conflict between the two (more on Berlin's side) given their similar backgrounds: Berlin's family having fled the Russian revolution; Deutscher having fled the Polish Communist party. But the author demonstrates how they differed on many key points, such as the purpose and techniques of historical analysis; the meaning of Marxism; Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin; monism v. pluralism; and Zionism.

But it is clear that Berlin detested Deutscher for reasons above and beyond their respective views of Marxism and Cold War Soviet activities. The author demonstrates that what initially set Berlin off on this feud of many decades was Deutscher's highly critical review of Berlin's first short book, "Historical Inevitability." Berlin was always sensitive to charges (such as Hannah Arendt's) that he was not "first rate." Early on, he had abandoned academic philosophy for intellectual history.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful By Hande Z on March 25, 2014
Format: Hardcover
This is an account of the one incident that might cause a blemish on the reputation of one of the most brilliant, loquacious, and charming intellectuals of the twentieth century - Isaiah Berlin. Berlin, like the co-protaganist on the cover of the book, Isaac Deutscher, was a Polish Jew who moved to the UK during the Second World War. Berlin was a Latvian Jew who also moved to the UK, and settled in Oxford where he lived, taught, and died. They were contemporaries (Deutscher was born in 1907 and Berlin two years later) but Berlin was the longer-lived man. He died in 1997 - thirty years after Deutscher.

Berlin was a renowned Western liberal who was opposed to all forms of communism. Deutscher was against the Stalinist version of communism but remained sympathetic to an idealised form of communism. In this fascinating book, Caute leads the reader into the lives of these two men and their intellectual antagonism they held towards each other. The high point of this book is the finger pointing at Berlin for treacherously destroying Deutscher's chance of teaching at the University of Sussex. The details of how Berlin, despite the faculty's strong support for Deutscher's appointment, cast the strongest objection sitting as an external adviser.

The details of Berlin's role in condemning Deutscher to the hard life of journalism instead of the better paid academic post have been omitted by his biographers. Berlin denied to the end, and to Tamara Deutscher (Isaac's widow) that he was only one voice and that his objection was not that Deutscher should not be allowed to teach, only that he was not qualified for the post - Professor of Russian history.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful By Albert Resis on January 11, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
An enthralling intellectual history of the Cold War as well as an engaging dual biography of politically opposed writers in mutual combat. Caute's critique of the works of both Berlin and Deutscher is most illuminating. Neither the mainstream thinker nor the heretic emerges faultless.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful By damien17 on July 15, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Fascinating subject matter,but the author relies so heavily on Ignatieff's biography of Berlin,that you start to feel you may as well just read that and Deutscher's stuff by the time you get to the end of this book.Could have done without the liberal professor moralizing for first year university students that the author feels the need to inject throughout the book.Does he really need to tell us that Edward Said was being "subjective" when he made comments critical of the dispossession of the Palestinians?Berlin comes across as little more than a talkative liberal willing to jump into bed with any and every powerful person in the 'free world' in the cause of being anti-Soviet,but it seems to this reader that the author is more critical of Deutscher's supposed apologies for Stalinism.Reminds me of the liberal guff that one had to endure as a student of Soviet Studies at university.And,really,what was the point of the tacked on chapter about Hannah Arendt?Seems to have only a threadbare relationship to the topic.
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