Isaiah Berlin: A Life

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Biography
Review: I just finished reading "Isaiah Berlin" and must say that it is one of the finest books I have ever read. The story of Mr. Berlin's life is fascinating, from his childhood in Russia and England, to his education, his service in the Foreign Office during WWII, his meetings with Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova, his career as an Oxford don, etc. Mr. Ignatieff tells the story, interspersed with the substance of his developing philosophical views, with warmth and insight. Even if you care not for philosophy (and I generally do not), this book deserves attention simply because it is a wonderful life and well told.

Rating:
Summary: a biography of one of the great historians of ideas
Review: Ignatief has done a fine job here in detailing not simply the life of Berlin but in actually digging into his past to provide insight into the biographical context of many of his views. Ignatief explains that Berlin's Russian roots were never fully covered over by his passionate embrace of his adopted country of Britain. His identity became what postcolonial theorists refer to as an example of "hybridity," meaning that he was niether fully one or the other.

This hybridity helped to form the basis for Berlin's belief that life is in essence tragic and there is no way to reconcile all valid worldviews.

I found this to be an incredibly compelling interpretation of Berlin's famous defense for pluralism. Finally, anyone interested in Western ideas in the aftermath of the Second World War will benefit greatly from reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: British spy makes first-class Oxford philosopher
Review: It was Joseph Stalin who called Mr. Berlin 'a British spy'. He did it after he had learned that Isaiah Berlin privately visited Russian exiled poet Anna Akhmatova during Berlin's short stay in Leningrad (of course, against Soviet government wishes). Surprisingly, it turned out that Stalin was correct. Sir Isaiah Berlin was in fact a former British intelligence officer. At least, this you can find in the recently published Stephen Dorril's monumental volume called 'MI6 'Inside the covert world of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service'. Michael Ignatieff, who wrote this interesting book about Sir Isaiah Berlin, for whatever reason didn't mention this fact. Perhaps he didn't know about this darker side of Berlin's past, but more likely explanation would be his desire not to turn the book into a spy thriller, which is reasonable. I'd find it hard to believe, that Ignatieff was unaware of Berlin's ties to the British Intelligence, particularly in light of history of Ignatieff's own grandfather, beautifully described in Ignatieff's other book 'The Russian Album'. Berlin's life was long, interesting, and fortunate for a Russian born in 1909. After spending few years in Petrograd (where he witnessed and never forgot the 1917 Russian Revolution) his family was able to move with some difficulty to England, thanks to his father being a timber merchant with some connections and means. Ignatieff had been meeting with Berlin for ten years in London in order to write a biography, which, according to Berlin's condition couldn't be published while he was still alive. The book, apart from fascinating and packed with events life of Berlin, was interesting to me due to the fact that both Ignatieff and Berlin were closely linked to Russia, although at the different ends. Berlin - a Russian Jew from Riga, a fluent Russian speaker, steeped in middle class values, turned British Intelligence officer, later a renowned British philosopher, historian of ideas, and founder of one of Oxford colleges. Ignatieff is a descendent of high Russian aristocracy with links to the Tsars, who became a Harvard professor and a writer. I feel like he is almost redeeming the Ignatieff name in this book, since according 'Russian Album', his great-grandfather count Nicolas Ignatieff (Minister of Interior of Russia), was renowned for his anti-Semitism. It's interesting that Berlin's favorite writers were mostly Russian; particularly he admired Herzen and Tougrenev. He used to say that Herzen (who was also a Russian émigré living England in 19th century) influenced him most. Ignatieff's father had to go to exile (first to England and then Canada) after 1917 Russian revolution almost at the same age as Berlin. There was clearly a deep, almost farther-son connection, uniting these too men and I suspect their meeting was not accidental. Although Berlin thought all his life about idea of liberty (Two concepts of Liberty), he wasn't a liberal in the American contemporarily meaning of the word. He has first formulated the simple but wonderful idea of value pluralism and put it ahead of the democracy, which he said could be intolerant and oppressive. He was a true free thinker, who refused to subscribe to any ideology. In short, Berlin was of his own class. Unique thing about him was, although he was a British subject, he combined a trinity of identities ' i.e. British, Jewish, and Russian and managed to tap from them creativity, intelligence, and insight. With all its incompleteness, this is a talented and useful book for anyone interested in Belin's life, philosophy, and Russian history.