Books on Berlin
including plays and an opera
Ryan, Alan (ed.), The Idea of Freedom: Essays in Honour of Isaiah Berlin (Oxford, 1979: Oxford University Press)
Kocis, Robert, A Critical Appraisal of Sir Isaiah Berlin’s Political Philosophy (Lewiston, NY, etc., 1989: Edwin Mellen Press)
Margalit, Avishai, and others, On the Thought of Isaiah Berlin: Papers Presented in Honour of Professor Sir Isaiah Berlin on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday (Jerusalem, 1990: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities); also published in Hebrew as Iyunim be-haguto shel Yeshayahu Berlin [Reflections on the Thought of Isaiah Berlin] (the translation from which into English, where relevant, is by Gabriel Piterberg)
Margalit, Edna and Avishai (eds), Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration (London, 1991: Hogarth Press; Chicago, 1991 [paperback 2001]: University of Chicago Press)
Galipeau, Claude J., Isaiah Berlin’s Liberalism (Oxford, 1994: Clarendon Press)
García Guitián, Elena, El pensamiento político de I. Berlin (Madrid, 2001: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales)
Díaz-Urmeneta Muñoz, Juan Bosco, Individuo y racionalidad moderna: una lectura de Isaiah Berlin (Seville, 1994: University of Seville)
Singh, Dinesh, Isaiah Berlin and the Idea of Freedom (New Delhi, 1994: Classical Publishing)
§Gray, John, Isaiah Berlin (London, 1995: HarperCollins; Princeton, 1996: Princeton University Press); retitled Berlin for the paperback edition, published in the Modern Masters series (London, 1995: Fontana)
- §Reviews
- Anderson, B.C., ‘Gray, John, Isaiah Berlin’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 No 3 (1995), 485
- Angier, Carole, ‘Freedom from Chains’, New Statesman & Society 6 January 1995, 37–8
- Caldwell, Roger, ‘Stay with the Precarious Equilibrium You Know’, Literary Review February 1995 10–11
- Carr, Raymond, ‘The Conflict of Right and Right’, Spectator, 11 February 1995, 35–6
- Coady, C. A. J., International Philosophical Quarterly 38 No 1 (1998), 91–2
- Gellner, Ernest, ‘Sauce for the Liberal Goose’, Prospect, November 1995, 56–61
- Grayling, A.C., Financial Times 25 February 1995, xvi
- Kukathas, Chandran, ‘What’s the Big Idea?’, Reason, November 1996
- Letwin, Oliver, ‘Free to be Slaves’, Times 5 January 1995, 36
- Lukes, Steven, ‘Pluralism is not Enough’, Times Literary Supplement 10 February 1995 4–5
- Mehta, Pratap B., American Political Science Review 91 No 3 (September 1997), 722–4
- Monk, Ray, ‘The Philosopher without a Theory’, Sunday Telegraph 15 January 1995, 9
- Rudova, L., European Legacy 3 No 5 (1998), 151–2
- Rogers, Ben, ‘The Love of Concrete’, The Independent 12 February 1995, 27
- Ryan, Alan, ‘Elusive Liberalism: An examination of the work of Isaiah Berlin..’, New York Times Book Review 7 July 1996, 7
- Walzer, Michael, ‘Are there Limits to Liberalism?’, New York Review of Books, 19 October 1995, 28–31
- Wokler, Robert, ‘Singular Praise for a Pluralist’, Times Higher Education Supplement 3 March 1995, 22
- Wolfson, Adam, ‘A Hedgehog After All’, The National Interest Spring 1998, 109–12
Corsi, Pietro (ed.), Isaiah Berlin: filosofo delle libertà ([Florence, 1995]: La Rivista dei Libri)
Carter, Ian, and Ricciardi, Mario (eds), L’idea di libertà (Milan, 1996: Feltrinelli): contains Italian translations of MacCallum (1972), Gray (1989), Taylor in Ryan (1979, above), Steiner (1975), Miller (1983), Oppenheim (1985), Miller (1985), Cohen in Ryan (1989, above; but translated from the version in Miller (1991))
Dalos, György, The Guest from the Future: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin (London, 1998: Murray; New York, 2000: Farrar, Straus and Giroux) [originally published in German as Der Gast der Zukunft: Anna Achmatowa und Sir Isaiah Berlin: Eine Liebesgeschichte, trans. (from the original Hungarian) Elsbeth Zylla (Hamburg, 1996: Europäische)]; extract trans. Polish
Ignatieff, Michael, Isaiah Berlin: A Life (London, 1998: Chatto and Windus; New York, 1998: Metropolitan); trans. Japanese, Portuguese, Polish (excerpt); a list of amendments to this volume is in progress
- Reviews
- Anon., Cumberland News, 23 October 1998
- Anon., Economist Review, 14 November 1998, 9–10
- Anon., ‘Berlin’s Letters Published’, Potters Bar Press, 28 October 1998
- Anon., The Week (Aylesbury, Bucks), 7 November 1998, 19
- Adamick, Paul, ‘Remembering Isaiah’, Canada Post, November 1998, 18
- Annan, Noel, ‘The Fox’s Tale’, Literary Review, November 1998, 11–12
- Arblaster, Anthony, Radical Philosophy 97 (September/October 1999), 46–8
- Aspis, Harold B., Hadassah Magazine, May 1999, 46
- Augstein, Franziska, ‘Die Gestalten Isaiah Berlins’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 22 February 1999
- Banville, John, ‘The Life of a Liberal’, Irish Times, 20 March 1999, 68
- Basini, Mario, ‘Lone Voice in the Wilderness’, Western Mail (Cardiff), 31 October 1998, 14
- Bayley, John, ‘It Happened One Night’, New York Review of Books, 16 December 1999, 89–90
- Beauman, Christopher, ‘Hampstead Twinned with Berlin’, Hampstead & Highgate Express, 13 November 1998
- Beckett, Lucy, ‘A Philosopher of Freedom in a Tortured Century’, Tablet, 14 November 1998, 1509
- Beloff, Max, ‘The Prophet Isaiah’, Jewish Quarterly, Winter 1998/9, 66
- Bernstein, Richard, ‘Foxes, Hedgehogs and the Defense of Freedom’, New York Times, 25 November 1998, E17
- Blumenau, Ralph, Philosophy Now, Spring 1999, 48
- Brenner, Andreas, ‘Es geht um die Freiheit. Worum sonst?’, Tages-Anzeiger, 14 December 1998, 49
- Bullock, Alan, ‘A Hedgehog or a Fox?’, Time (International Edition), 23 November 1998, 88
- Buruma, Ian, New Republic Issue 4374 (1998), 32–5
- Cherniss, Joshua, ‘The Voice of Freedom’, Yale Review of Books, Summer 1999, 6
- Cowling, Maurice, Spectator, 17 October 1998, 38
- Critique (Paris) No 627/628 (1999), 744–56
- Curtis, Jenefer, ‘An Honorary Canadian’, Globe and Mail (Ottawa), 7 November 1998, D9
- Dahrendorf, Ralf, ‘A Modern Day Erasmus’, Sunday Times, 18 October 1998
- Delannoi, Gil, ‘Isaiah Berlin, libéral et pluraliste’, Commentaire, No 89 (2000), 194–7
- Dirda, Michael, ‘The Cleverest Man in England’, Washington Post, 8 November 1998, 6
- Dunn, John, ‘For Services to Conversation’, Times Higher Education Supplement, 13 November 1998, 22
- Epstein, Joseph, ‘A Charmed Life’, Weekly Standard (USA), 1 February 1999, 31
- Ferrand, Pierre, ‘A Civilized Intellectual’, Books and Authors, September/October 1999, 46–47
- Grant, Linda, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Berlin’, Guardian, 24 October 1998, 9
- Gray, Chris, ‘Sex, Freedom and the Life of the Mind’, Oxford Times Weekend, 20 November 1998, 9
- Gray, John, ‘Monopolies of Loss’, New Statesman, 20 November 1998, 48–50
- Grayling, Anthony, ‘Meditations on a Thinker’, Financial Times, 21–2 November 1998, Weekend FT, v
- Hitchens, Christopher, ‘Moderation or Death’, London Review of Books, 23 November 1998, 3–11
- Johnson, Daniel, ‘The Accessible Hedgehog’, Daily Telegraph, 31 October 1998, 4
- Karpel, Dalia, ‘A Man for all Reasons’, Ha’aretz Magazine, 14 January 2000, 16–23
- Levey, Sir Michael, Good Book Guide, January 1999
- McMenamin, Iain, ‘Berlin’s life Mirrored the Twentieth Century’, Sunday Business Post
- Mackillop, Ian, ‘Isaiah Berlin: Modest Grandee’, London Magazine, February/March 1999, 51–55
- Malik, Kenan, ‘Choices in our Darkest Moments’, Independent on Sunday, 25 October 1998, 11
- Marcus, Steven, ‘Both Fox and Hedgehog’, New York Times Book Review, 29 November 1998, 7; and Deccan Herald, 3 January 1999
- Morton, Brian, ‘Chasing the Fox’, Scotland on Sunday, 1 November 1998, 27
- Oppenheimer, Peter, ‘Marshalled Memories of a Modest Mentor’, Jewish Chronicle, 30 October 1998, 32
- Podhoretz, Norman, ‘A Dissent on Isaiah Berlin’, Commentary, February 1999, 25–37
- Polanowska-Sygulska, Beata, ‘Tozsamosc na styku trzech kultur’ [Identity on the border of three cultures], Przeglad polityczny 54 (2002), 100–5
- Pye, Michael, ‘That Thinking Feeling’, Scotsman, 31 October 1998
- Quinton, Anthony, ‘Goodbye to Berlin’s jokes’, Times, 12 November 1998, 42
- Ricciardi, Mario, ‘La morale e la verità di una vita al plurale’, Domenica, 31 January 1999, 25
- Roazen, Paul, American Scholar, Spring 1999, 152–4
- Rogers, Ben, ‘The brave Isaiah Berlin’, Evening Standard, 19 October 1998, 50
- Rothstein, Edward, ‘Fresh Debates On the Legacy Of Isaiah Berlin’, New York Times, 14 November 1998, 9
- Ryan, Alan, ‘Wise Man’, New York Review of Books, 17 December 1998, 29–37; also reviews Berlin’s The Proper Study of Mankind
- Sacks, Jonathan, ‘The difference between Religion and Spirituality’, Times, 24 October 1998, 23
- Silver, Eric, ‘The Other “I. Berlin”’, Jerusalem Report, 30 August 1999, 49
- Smith, Anthony, ‘Not all freedom fighters carry guns: Some just keep their minds loaded’, Observer Review, 8 November 1998, 15
- Spruyt, B. J., ‘De genade van het vergeten’, Reformatorisch Dagblad, 12 May 1999, 23
- Taylor, Robert, ‘A Brilliant Look at the Brilliant Isaiah Berlin’, Boston Globe, 19 November 1998
- Toulmin, Stephen, ‘Prodigal Son’, Los Angeles Times, 3 January 1999, 6
- Trevor-Roper, Hugh, ‘A Philosopher of Three Cultures’, Sunday Telegraph, 25 October 1998, 13
- Tumim, Stephen, Daily Telegraph (Books of the Year), 21 November 1998
- Wasserstein, Bernard, ‘De Mortuis’, Jerusalem Post, 8 January 1999, 20
- Wintle, Justin, ‘A long Goodbye to Berlin’, Independent (Weekend Review), 31 October 1998, 14
- Wokler, Robert, ‘A Modern Candide’, Times Literary Supplement, 18 December 1998, 7–8
- Zipperstein, Steven, ‘How Isaiah Berlin, a boy from Riga, became the consummate Oxford Don’, Forward, 29 January 1999, 13
Polanowska-Sygulska, Beata, Filozofia wolnosci Isaiaha Berlina [Isaiah Berlin’s philosophy of freedom] (Kraków, 1998: Wydawnictwo Znak)
Badillo O’Farrell, Pablo, and Bocardo Crespo, Enrique (eds), Isaiah Berlin: la mirada despierta de la historia (Madrid, 1999: Tecnos): includes translations of three pieces by Berlin (items 240, 241a, 244 in the bibliography on this site)
Binnie, Jean, ‘Night Visit’, radio play first broadcast 27 June 2000 by BBC Radio 4
Espada, João Carlos, Plattner, Marc F., and Wolfson, Adam (eds), Pluralism without Relativism: Remembering Isaiah Berlin (Lanham, MD, 2001: Lexington Books)
Hu Chuansheng, Ziyou de huanxiang: Bolin sixiang yanjiu [Conceptions of Liberty: A Study of Berlin’s Thought] (Nanjing, 2001: Nanjing University Press): discusses the features of Berlin’s thought and his contribution in the context of the development of liberalism and the whole background of contemporary thought
Lilla, Mark, Ronald Dworkin and Robert B. Silvers (eds), The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin (New York, 2001: New York Review of Books; London, 2001, Granta); trans. Chinese; contents
- Reviews
- Hardy, Henry, ‘Thoughts of Taj Mahal will leave you as drunk as a fox’ [not my title!], Times Higher Education Supplement, 30 November 2001, 24–5
- Leiter, Robert, ‘Speaking Volumes: A Fox Through and Through; Isaiah Berlin knew many things, and valued pluralism above all else’, Jewish Exponent, 10 May 2001, 30
Naiman, Anatoly, Ser (Moscow, 2001: Eksmo)
- Reviews
- ‘J.C.’ in ‘NB’, Times Literary Supplement, 14 December 2001, 14
Hu Chuansheng, Guannian de liliang: yu Bolin duihua [The Power of Ideas: Dialogue with Isaiah Berlin] (Sichuan, 2002, Sichuan People’s Publishing House): the book consists of two parts; in the first part IB’s thought is introduced, in the second the idea of enlightenment in China is discussed; IB never mentioned the problems of China and Chinese thought, but Hu tries to engage in a dialogue with him through his reading of IB’s philosophy
Lassalle, José María (ed.), Isaiah Berlin: una reflexión liberal sobre el ‘otro’ (Madrid, 2002: Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales)
Moss, Nancy P., Anna: Love in the Cold War, play about Anna Akhmatova and IB, first produced in Honolulu in 2002, then in New York in 2011; reviewed by Ekaterina Lalo in Review Fix and by Arlene McKanic in New York Cool
Mali, Joseph, and Wokler, Robert (eds), Isaiah Berlin’s Counter-Enlightenment [Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 93 No 3] (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2003)
Marvin, Mel (music) and Jonathan Levi (libretto), The Guest from the Future, opera premiered by the Nine Circles Chamber Theatre at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, on 23 July 2004
Coles, Norman, Human Nature and Human Values: Interpreting Isaiah Berlin (Bexhill on Sea, 2004: Egerton House)
§Crowder, George, Isaiah Berlin: Liberty and Pluralism (Cambridge, 2004: Polity [Key Contemporary Thinkers series])
George Crowder here performs the almost impossible feat of tidying up Isaiah Berlin’s somewhat scattered, imprecise and inconsistent accounts of his views without oversimplification or misrepresentation. He emulates the Berlinian virtue of sympathetic identification with his subject, but without forfeiting critical distance. This exceedingly fruitful approach yields far and away the best vade mecum to Berlin’s ideas yet written. But not only has Crowder given us a masterly exposition; he also brilliantly develops some of the vaguer clues left by Berlin, adding substantially to Berlin’s intellectual legacy in a spirit entirely in keeping with his own work. It is as if an unfinished cathedral were completed by a new architect who intuited the vision of its original designer. Berlin would surely have applauded this exciting and original book, and learnt much from it.
Jinkins, Michael, Christianity, Tolerance and Pluralism: A Theological Engagement with Isaiah Berlin’s Social Theory (London/New York, 2004: Routledge)
Aarsbergen-Ligtvoet, Connie, Isaiah Berlin: A Value Pluralist and Humanist View of Human Nature and the Meaning of Life (Amsterdam/New York, 2006: Rodopi)
Burtonwood, Neil, Cultural Diversity, Liberal Pluralism, and Schools: Isaiah Berlin and Education (London, 2006: Routledge)
Crowder, George, and Henry Hardy (eds), The One and the Many: Reading Isaiah Berlin (Amherst, NY, 2007: Prometheus); minor corrections listed here
- Reviews
- Andrades, Christophe, ‘Isaiah Berlin en de grenzen van het liberalisme’, Liberales website; cf. a blog by the same author on David Miller’s essay
- anon., ‘Back with More Berlin’, news article on Flinders University website
- Blattberg, Charles, Philosophical Quarterly 58 No 233 (October 2008), 753–5
- Bode, Mark, Political Studies Review 8 No 3 (September 2008), 364–5
- Ferrell, Jason, Australian Journal of Political Science 43 No 2 (June 2008), 369–71
- Hiruta, Kei, Ethics and International Affairs 22 No 2 (Summer 2008), 232–5
- Reed, Jamie, ‘The Continuing Challenge of Isaiah Berlin’s Political Thought’, European Journal of Political Theory, forthcoming; also reviews PIRA and UD
- Santambrogio, Marco, ‘Dio, Patria e Famiglia?’, Rivista dei Libri, March 2008, 20–2
- S.d.S., F. [Filippo Santoni de Sio], Rivista di filosofia, 2008 No 1, 133–4
- Stuart-Fox, Martin, Australian Journal of Politics and History 54 No 1, 169–70
Hama Shinichiro, Berlin no Jiyuu Ron: Tagenteki Liberarizumu no Keifu [Berlin on Liberty: A Genealogy of Pluralist Liberalism] (Tokyo, 2008: Keiso Shobo): also discusses Joseph Raz, John Gray, Judith Shklar, Avishai Margalit and Michael Ignatieff, and examines the tradition of liberalism based on the concept of individual autonomy rather than on the principles of justice
Milosevich, Mira, and Julio Crespo (eds), Isaiah Berlin: un liberal en perspectiva ([Madrid,] 2008: FAES)
Piatti Morganti, Bruna, Isaiah Berlin: L’ethos in politica: una questione in-attuale (Urbino, 2008: QuattroVenti)
Hardy, Henry (ed.), The Book of Isaiah: Personal Impressions of Isaiah Berlin (Woodbridge, 2009: The Boydell Press in association with Wolfson College, Oxford); minor corrections listed here
Hardy, Henry, Kei Hiruta and Jennifer Holmes (eds), Isaiah Berlin and Wolfson College, with a foreword by Hermione Lee (Oxford, 2009: Wolfson College) [a 68-page pamphlet published for the centenary of IB’s birth]
L. Kopylov, T. Pozdnyakova and N. Popova, ‘I eto bylo tak’: Anna Akhmatova i Isaiya Berlin [‘That’s How It Was’: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin] (St Petersburg, 2009: The Anna Akhmatova Museum at Fountain House): the dates of the 1945–6 meetings between AA and IB that IB wrote about are probably 15–16 November 1945 and 5 January 1946; this book claims that there were further visits, again lasting into the early hours, on 17–18 and either 18–19 or 19–20 November, and also a meeting on 2 January – five meetings in all. IB never referred to any such additional meetings, but the evidence cited for them is not unpersuasive. See also TLS ‘Commentary’ article.
Geraldo Ramírez, Jorge (ed.), Isaiah Berlin: utopía, tragedia y pluralismo (Medellín, 2010: Fondo Editorial Universidad Eafit)
Kamimori Ryo, Isaiah Berlin: Tagenshugi no seiji tetsugaku [Isaiah Berlin: The political philosophy of pluralism] (Tokyo, 2010: Shunjusha)
Nasu Kosuke, Berlin toiu nano shisoushika ga ita: ‘Hitori no hito’ wo tooshite ‘Yononaka’ he [There Lived a Historian of Thought named Berlin: Through ‘a Person’ to ‘the World’] (Kyoto, 2010: Henshu Kobo SURE)
Badillo O'Farrell, Pablo (ed.), Filosofía de la razón plural: Isaiah Berlin entre dos siglos (Madrid, 2011: Bibliotheca Nueva)
Walicki, Andrzej, Encounters with Isaiah Berlin: Story of an Intellectual Friendship (Frankfurt am Main etc., 2011: Peter Lang); first published in Dialogue and Universalism
Arie M. Dubnov, Isaiah Berlin: The Journey of a Jewish Liberal (London, 2012: Palgrave Macmillan)
Joshua L. Cherniss, A Mind and Its Time: The Development of Isaiah Berlin’s Political Thought (Oxford, 2013: Oxford University Press)
Forthcoming
Riley, Jonathan, Tragic Pluralistic Liberalism: A Perspective on Anglo-American Liberalism after Mill: a study concetrating on Sterling Lamprecht and Berlin