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Bertrand Russell: 1921-1970, The Ghost of Madness Hardcover – March 20, 2001

by Ray Monk (Author)

15 customer reviews

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A portrait of the twentieth-century philosopher focuses on Russell's academic accomplishments, and his failed attempts to apply reason to his personal relationships and the problems of everyday life.

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This rich, variegated biography (Monk's second and final volume after The Spirit of Solitude, 1872-1921) starts off on a happy note for Russell, with his second marriage (of four) and the longed-for birth of a son. Unfortunately, from that point on, things only go downhill for him emotionally. Throughout his life, Russell (1873-1970) felt that he might go insane. He believed very much in romantic love but was apparently incapable of truly loving anyone. This emotional insecurity led him to multiple liaisons outside of his marriages (at the age of 64, his third marriage was to a 20-year-old) and strained relationships with his two children. Particularly upsetting to Russell was the homosexuality of his son, since he was on record as saying that homosexuality was the consequence of bad parenting. These domestic problems aside, Monk does a marvelous job of covering the highlights of the last half of Russell's long life: his Nobel prize in literature, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear proliferation, his imprisonment for antinuclear protests, his social and political philosophy, and his contributions to logic and analytic philosophy. Highly recommended for academic and public library collections. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

One of the great logicians of modern times, Bertrand Russell lived a life that defies all syllogisms. In the second volume of what is sure to establish itself as the definitive biography, Monk lays bare the strange paradoxes that bedeviled the great philosopher during the last six decades of his very long life. Careful scholarship shreds the illusion of success created by Russell's elevation to the Order of Merit and by his surprising selection for a Nobel Prize in literature. What then stands exposed is the conceptual confusion that increasingly clogged Russell's public pronouncements in his later years, as well as the personal betrayals that poisoned his private life. It is thus a figure of tragedy not triumph that Monk limns in this nuanced chronicle, recounting how Russell lost his grip on serious philosophy, squandered his literary gifts in hack journalism, repeatedly failed in his marital and parental relationships, and embarrassed himself in his politics. To be sure, it is still a modern titan that Monk shows his readers--one who deflected the lives of Einstein, Eliot, and Trotsky. But it is a titan who ascended to the pantheon shrouded in shadows of pathos. Sure to endure as a standard reference for decades. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Free Press; 1st Free Press Ed edition (March 20, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743212150
ISBN-13: 978-0743212151
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 15 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #61 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Analytic Philosophy
- #695 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Philosophers

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William S Jamison

Thanks Ray!

February 10, 2007

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Having read "Wittgenstein", then vol 1 of this biography, this was a natural and exciting follower. I certainly have to wonder what connection there is to a life associated, at least ab initio, with mathematics and failure in one's personal life. Considering the connection between logic, mathematics, and reasoning, and our need for success with those to be successful in one's life in general, this certainly brings up an issue of a golden mean between extremes. It perhaps also brings up an issue of autism and the genetic predisposition to autism as a range of autism might on one hand lead to outstanding mathematical accomplishment accompanied by outstanding social failure.

It is such a shame that such a great mind would give up such important work for lack of - self discipline? Self control? A family madness? Most telling I thought was the quote given in response to the question "Why did you give up philosophy?" Since his response is shocking but stabs to the heart of the personal difficulties experienced by BR and successfully passed on to almost all of his children and grandchildren one has to wonder was this nurture or nature. A clue seems to be the success of those who had the earliest and longest break in contact. The less contact the more success?

Perhaps an errata sheet should be made available regarding the apparent deleted words. One sentence especially seemed to need "not" to make sense in context, but in general I found my reading to be abruptly halted with the awareness of a word missing - in a context where I could know precisely what word would have been right. I half wonder if RM was using a new word processor or something? I did not notice this at all with vol. 1.

Regardless, of all the things worth reading this will always be high on my recommend list. Great philosophers are easier to understand when we know as much as we can about them as persons. Thanks Ray! Eternally grateful.

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Joy Bertwell

Five Stars

December 18, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Great value. Quick delivery.

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Amazon Customer

Monk is eminently fair to Russell

August 14, 2018

Format: Hardcover

The negative reviews of this monumental bio are themselves unfair. I understand the reverence for Russell that arises from his brilliance as a philosopher and his status as an antiwar/antinuclear icon. But Monk gives credit where credit is due, and one is left at the end of the book with a deep sadness about all of the tragedies he suffered, even those that he can be said to have inflicted on himself.

To the extent that Russell is made to look mean-spirited, frivolous or incoherent, those are conclusions justly to be drawn largely from his own pen and his speeches. Just a few things: While Hitler was preparing for war, Russell advocated unilateral disarmament by Britain, on the theory that, like a dog chasing a car that stops dead in the road, Hitler would lose his aggressive impulses if no one else had weapons. And in the aftermath of WWII, he argued that the US should threaten the USSR with nuclear annihilation unless it agreed to come under the yoke of a world government run by the United States! He said publicly that John F. Kennedy was more evil than Hitler or Stalin. He took credit for defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis, when it appears that he played a trivial role in the resolution if any. When his children were young he believed that by applying strictly behaviorist principles he could turn them into perfect adults. He refused to have any direct contact with his ex-wife Dora for decades, to the detriment of his children and grandchildren. When his son sank into mental illness, he cut him off emotionally, and then did the same thing to his granddaughter Lucy at the very end of his life. (She killed herself by setting herself afire in a village cemetery five years later.)

This is all well documented. It is not a fantasy constructed by someone "out to get" the man. If we have to revise our simple picture of the aged, aristocratic warrior against evil in the world, so be it.

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D. Kovacs

Absolutely essential for understanding Russell -- especially his personal relationships

April 18, 2015

Format: Hardcover

I have been taken aback by the reviews which state that this book a) depicts Russell as a monster or b) loses "objectivity" through the use of written materials and interviews given by Russell's children and grandchildren.

In the first case -- no one is perfect; Russell was an exceptionally amazing human being with remarkable strengths and equally remarkable weaknesses. This by no means makes him a monster-- only human -- and this detailed biography does an outstanding job of bringing out Russell's extraordinary complexity in all facets of his life.

In the second case -- after reading two one-volume biographies of Russell and the memoirs by his second wife Dora Russell and his daughter Katharine Tait -- I thought that I didn't have much more to discover about the entanglements of Russell's personal life. A moment after picking up this book, I found that I had much to learn. The photographs and the text together draw you into a torment of blended (or unblended) families, court battles, mental illness, and noble intent gone horribly wrong. I ended the book with sorrow for all of them.

In her memoir, Russell's daughter wrote that, in another age, her father would have been a saint. Some people, during his lifetime, thought of him and even spoke of him as a kind of secular saint. His desire to save the world from itself was exceptionally strong. Reading about the personal tragedy of his family life, I could only think of the saying of St. Seraphim of Sarov: "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." A peaceful spirit is not something that Russell ever managed to acquire -- and, as a cautionary tale and a deep glimpse into the light and darkness of the human heart -- this biography is highly recommended.

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