Isaiah Berlin The Journey of a Jewish Liberal

by Dubnov, Arie M.

• ISBN13: 9780230110700
• ISBN10: 0230110703
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This study offers a fresh reappraisal of the philosopher, political thinker, and historian of ideas Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) from childhood to the height of his intellectual career. It provides the first historically contextualized study of Berlin's formative years and identifies different stages in his intellectual development, allowing a reappraisal of his theory of liberalism. Applying a "double perspective" that examines Berlin both as an East European Jewish emigre as well as a British Liberal intellectual, author Arie Dubnov stresses the very ambivalent relation between Berlin's liberal philosophy and his pro-Zionist sentiments.

Author Biography

Arie Dubnov is a lecturer in the History Department at Stanford.

Table of Contents

Explaining the Liberal Predicament * PART I: The Importance of Being Witty * A Young Boy from Riga * Becoming a Russian-Jew * The Realist Appeal * PART II: The Pink Liberal * Mr. Jericho's Piercing Eyes * “I Never Don’t Moralize” * Karl Marx * PART III: The Anti-Cosmopolitan Pluralist * Collisions * On Moses and Joshua * Shifting Horizons * “This mighty conflict between the fantasy of Home and the fantasy of Away”