Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought [Import] [Hardcover]

Isaiah Berlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 25, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0701179090 | ISBN-13: 978-0701179090 | Edition: 1St Edition

The first publication of this major work by Isaiah Berlin, regarded by many as the twentieth century’s greatest thinker. It is the only text he ever wrote in which he laid out in one connected account most of his key insights about the “romantic age.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…indispensable for anyone interested in the history of ideas and the development of liberal thought.”
–New York Review of Books


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Review

Political Ideas in the Romantic Age makes an intriguing and provocative contribution to the history of ideas, and also to the study of Berlin's own thought. The ideas Berlin examines are intrinsically interesting and hugely influential. The book integrates Berlin's analysis of liberty with his reading of the debate between the Enlightenment and the counter-Enlightenment to an extent not found in his other works. And the editing is as meticulous as anything done by Henry Hardy, who is the best possible editor of any text by Berlin.
(George Crowder, Flinders University, Australia, author of "Isaiah Berlin: Liberty and Pluralism" ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus; 1St Edition edition (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701179090
• ISBN-13: 978-0701179090
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,742,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic beginnings He makes the 'life of the mind' live, May 2, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought (Hardcover)

Isaiah Berlin is one of the greatest modern political philosophers.

This present work was first presented as a series of lectures at Bryn Mawr college in 1952, and later revised. It is an early work containing the seeds of many of his most important ideas, including that of `two liberties'.

It also contains lengthy analysis of the works of those Continental thinkers Condorcet, Helvetius , de Maistre ,Fichte, Rousseau Hegel he learned much from, and made a more vital part of Anglo-philosophical discussion.

Carole Angier writing in the Telegraph describes the crux of Berlin's argument as follows:

"There is a long rationalist tradition, ... stretching from the ancient Greeks through Christianity to the Enlightenment and beyond, in which virtue is knowledge, as Plato said; the world is made in a certain way, by God or nature; and if we understand it rightly we will know our place in it, and what to want.

In different accounts we learn these facts in different ways: from God, nature or science; from the natural light of reason or the uncorrupted heart. But all agree that the world is a natural order, and that real freedom is fitting into that order in the right way. This is what Berlin will call positive liberty, and what he calls here non-humanist or romantic freedom. It is the freedom Rousseau finds in the "general will", which is what our real selves want, and that coincides with the good of society and the will of the ruler. If I obey the ruler, therefore, I really obey myself; and so there is no conflict between liberty and authority, freedom and obedience.

This is the "grotesque and hair-raising paradox", the "sleight of hand" that has, according to Berlin, led to all totalitarian theories and practices since, from Robespierre to Marx, in the name of "higher" freedoms or goods, which the State, or the Church, knows better than my (ordinary) self. Against it he sets Hume's distinction between fact and value, and the modest, "negative" freedom of Mill, which consists of being free from interference by other people."

This work contains the heart of Berlin's analysis of the Romantic Period.It also illustrates how skillful Berlin could be at sympathetically presenting the Utopian schemes of particular Romantic thinkers , while carefully showing his reservations about them.

Like all his works it is written in a sweeping often surprisingly emotional and exhilirating style.

This man makes the 'life of the mind' live.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Berlin Basic, August 24, 2006

By 

G. R. McGhie "Bookist" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought (Hardcover)

For those with some knowledge of Berlin's contribution to modern thought "Political Ideas in the Romantic Age" is an important contribution to his already extensive writings. For those with little familiarity with this prolific English/Latvian philosopher of the history of ideas this text serves as an excellent foundation document.

In an introductory comment Joshua Cherniss provides a very useful and candid perspective on Berlin and really sets the stage for the essays that follow.

As Cherniss says "Berlin produced no great synthesis or Magnum Opus; temperamentally, and stylistically, he was an essayist". It is as an essayist that Berlin talks about subjects that have considerable current importance -- particularly value pluralism and liberalism.

But the importance of Berlin's approach is the strong historical perspective that he brings to his writing. In illuminating commentary he brings a number of of unjustifiably neglected writers and thinkers to the fore. Helvetius, Turgot and Holbach are referred to as well as others who have retained a modern currency - Adam Smith, Voltaire, Diderot, Leibniz and Hume. They are all caught up in Berlin's unique writing style which carries the reader along in powerful mix of thought and words.

No single writer can bring complete answers to modern issues and problems. Berlin would not claim that his "Two Concepts of Liberty", attitude to pluralism and values provides a total philosophical package. But to me his ideas give us a stimulating foundation with which to approach today's complex problems and issues

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars political ideas illuminated, July 4, 2006

By 

Michael G. Edwards (hobart, australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Political Ideas in the Romantic Age: Their Rise and Influence on Modern Thought (Hardcover)

a splendid demonstration of a great mind at work. these essays must be close to a standard work on the ancestry of contemporary political thought