Isaiah Berlin in 1939, the year in which Karl Marx was published: photo by Helen Muspratt
ISAIAH BERLIN (1909–1997) was one of the most celebrated thinkers of the twentieth century. His defence of freedom and diversity against control and uniformity is widely endorsed. His distinction between the monist hedgehog and the pluralist fox, and his celebration of ‘the crooked timber of humanity’, have entered the vocabulary of modern culture, together with his widely influential elaboration of the concepts of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ political liberty. A consummate essayist and letter-writer, he was famous for his virtuosity as a lecturer and talker. His distinctive deep, rapid voice was often heard on the radio, and he led many to explore his chosen subject – the history of ideas. He founded Oxford’s largest graduate college, Wolfson, which expresses his generous, unhidebound personality to this day.
‘one of the distinguishing characteristics of a great man is that his active intervention makes what seemed highly improbable in fact happen’
Isaiah Berlin, ‘Chaim Weizmann’ (1958)
Call for copies of interviews and talks
Isaiah Berlin gave many interviews during his life, public and private, and also many talks. The public interviews are listed here. The private interviews were mostly given to biographers and other authors. Berlin’s Literary Trustees would like to secure copies of as many as possible of these interviews and talks: copies of recordings where they exist, and copies of any transcripts or notes. The webmaster would be glad to hear from interviewers and any others who are able to help.
The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library (IBVL) began life in 2000 as the website of The Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust, which looks after all aspects of Berlin’s literary estate. It was superseded in this role in February 2018 by Isaiah Berlin Online (IBO), part of the Isaiah Berlin Legacy Project (IBLP) at Wolfson. IBO is curated by the Isaiah Berlin Legacy Fellow, Dr Mark Pottle. The Trust’s main tasks have been to publish Berlin’s work, including his letters; to maintain this website, where unpublished material and relevant information are posted; and in general to foster awareness of and access to Berlin’s intellectual, literary and personal legacy. The primary responsibility for pursuing these objectives now belongs to the IBLP.
The IBVL will remain available, at any rate for the time being, while IBO grows. PDFs posted from February 2022 display the livery of IBO, with which they are shared. It is hoped that these websites may help bring to light those of Berlin’s letters that are still unknown to the Trust (some of which are in library archives, some in private hands), so that copies may be deposited in his archive and transcripts made available in print or online. The same applies to any interviews, broadcasts and unpublished talks or articles not yet listed in the catalogues on this site.
Selected 2011–18 items available online (latest first): for fuller listings see Facebook and Twitter: from 2019 onwards, items are notified only on these social media platforms, and sometimes in Isaiah Berlin Online
2018
Judith Wechsler’s acclaimed film Isaiah Berlin: Philosopher of Freedom | The 2018 Isaiah Berlin Lecture in Association with the Rothschild Foundation: Aileen Kelly, ‘Isaiah Berlin on Liberty’ | A short video on the Berlin legacy appeal | Isaiah Berlin Giving Weekend | The first Thai translations of Berlin | A new intellectual biography of Berlin2017
Berlin twenty years on | ‘Missing Isaiah Berlin’ on BBC Radio 4 | Michael Ignatieff’s biographical interviews with Berlin and others | Part of Anatoly Naiman’s 2016 Isaiah Berlin Lecture in Riga | Timothy Snyder’s 2017 Isaiah Berlin Lecture in Riga (starts at 9:40) | BBC radio programme to examine Berlin as a public intellectual | New online edition of Berlin’s The Age of Enlightenment: The Eighteenth-Century Philosophers | The 2017 Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga | One Week in History: 7 November at JW3 | Liberty and Facts: Isaiah Berlin in the Age of Trump | Podcast of Galen Strawson’s Berlin Lecture on 25 May | Paris Event on Isaiah Berlin (Association des chercheurs de l’Université Panthéon-Assas), 29 May | JW3 exhibition on Berlin and freedom | Watch Berlin’s last filmed interview | Yale conference on Berlin | What Berlin has to tell us about Brexit and Trump2016
New book on Berlin and the Enlightenment | New book containing extensive discussion of Berlin’s role in the publication of Doctor Zhivago | New edition of The Soviet Mind | Review of the 2nd edition of The Hedgehog and the Fox | Isaiah Berlin on Europe, the EEC and the future | The Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga 2016 | David Herman on Berlin and his successors | Marie Berlin’s diary and autobiographical notes | Greatly enlarged supplement to the first volume of Berlin’s letters | Review of Affirming in the Washington Times | A new treatment of the Akhmatova/Berlin encounter | A new survey of recent Berlinian literature by George Crowder, exclusive to this website | ‘Some Political Events of 1951’, a new unpublished fragment from the Berlin Papers | Praise for Affirming from The Times Higher Education Supplement | Newstalk ‘Talking Books’ radio interview with Mark Pottle about Affirming (a red slide near the top of the screen allows you to choose which part of the programme to listen to: click on its path just under the ‘a’ of ‘Samuel Johnson’ to go straight to the beginning of this interview) | How Isaiah Berlin committed the sin of success2015
A blog on Berlin | Letters to Berlin from Solomon Rachmilevich | John Banville and Justin Cartwright on Affirming | Philip Ziegler on Affirming | Henry Hardy on five books by Berlin | Affirming reviews | Wolfson College’s report on the 2 October launch party for Affirming | New play by Lewis Owens featuring Berlin | Snapshots of the one-day Bodleian display on Berlin, 2 October | ‘The Unique Qualities of Joe Alsop’, a letter from Affirming in the NYRB | Review of the second edition of Freedom and Its Betrayal | Berlin on ‘Contemporary Thinkers’ website | Berlin again a character in Lewis Owens’s new play | Stefan Collini reviews Affirming | Antony Percy blogs on his article on Berlin and espionage | Antony Percy on Berlin and espionage | Photos from the Oxford performance of Lewis Owens’s play | A Canadian review of Caute | Video of the 2015 Isaiah Berlin Lecture at Wolfson | Editing Genius: The Isaiah Berlin Papers Project | The text of Lewis’s Owens’s play, published here first | The BBC Russian Service on Lewis Owens’s play | Berlin and Hayek compared | PowerPoint presentation for previous item | Audio of the 2015 Isaiah Berlin Lecture at Wolfson | Interview with Colin Stone, pianist in Lewis Owens’s play | Video of the 2015 Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture in Riga | Interview with Henry Hardy about Berlin on Radio Oxford, 24 May (starts at 35:34) | Details of the 2015 Isaiah Berlin Lecture at Wolfson on 28 May | An interview with Lewis Owens, author of Like a Chemist from Canada | Feature in Russian on Like a Chemist from Canada | Poster for Like a Chemist from Canada, Oxford, 3 July | Poster for Like a Chemist from Canada, Royal Academy of Music, 14 June | Poster for Like a Chemist from Canada, Sadler’s Wells, 13 June | Forthcoming Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga, 4 June | A new review of Cherniss | Full information on the forthcoming play about Berlin and Shostakovich | Isaiah Berlin, the Enlightenment, and what the Jews can teach the world | Report of a symposium on Berlin and Akhmatova, Pushkin House, London, 4 February | Poster for Like a Chemist from Canada, forthcoming play by Lewis Owens on Berlin and Shostakovich2014
Forthcoming exhibition and lecture featuring Berlin | A long review of Caute by Thomas Peebles | Berlin and freedom in South Africa | Obituary by Baruch Knei-Paz | Forthcoming play on Berlin and Shostakovich | More on Berlin and Pasternak | Announcement of the 2015 Berlin Lecture at Wolfson | Berlin as critic of analytic philosophy | A spat in the LRB (scroll down) | Scorsese’s film about the New York Review of Books: footage of Berlin from 72:52 and during the credits | Berlin explains jihadism | A response to the previous post >> | Berlin’s message to the twenty-first century | Berlin blamed for contemporary political indifference | Berlin and the story of Doctor Zhivago | The Russian origins of Isaiah and Aline Berlin compared | Announcement by Wolfson College of Lady Berlin’s death | Serena Moore’s portrait of Berlin is now available as a separate pamphlet | A collection of recordings of and about Berlin | Christopher Bray on Caute and Building | Berlin and nudge policies | Anna Kaminskaya on her visit to England in 1965 with Anna Akhmatova | Video of the 2014 Berlin Lecture in Riga | Gilbert on Deighton on Berlin | Rajadhyaksha on Caute | The recent conference pithily summarised | Isaiah Berlin in Riga: new website | Mario Vargas Llosa on Berlin on Hamann | Brooks on Berlin and Akhmatova in the New York Times | Boomsma reviews Cherniss | Mikics on Caute on Berlin and Deutscher | Craitu revews Cherniss on Berlin | Berlin’s 1975 lecture ‘Some Opponents of the Enlightenment’ | Jeremy Waldron on Berlin | Cunctator Prize for procrastination sponsored by IBLT | Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane on Berlin on freedom | Trailer for previous item | Forthcoming film about Berlin and Eisenstein | BBC Radio 4 play by John Banville featuring IB in a minor role | A selection of Berlin quotes | Who invented the term ‘Counter-Enlightenment?’ | Blog comment on next item | IB on FDR revisited | The Sydney Morning Herald on Caute | Jan-Werner Müller on the letters | Eichler on Berlin on Shostakovich | ‘Isaiah Berlin in 10 Great Quotes’ | Review of Crooked Timber by Stephen Joyce | An anonymous survey on Airing News | Lukes on Caute2013
Ha’aretz on Berlin on Eichmann | John Banville on The Power of Ideas | Listen to Berlin dictating Two Concepts of Liberty | Vladimir Tismaneanu on Caute | Timothy Garton Ash: ‘Isaiah Berlin and the Challenge of Multiculturalism’ (part 1) | Part 2 of previous item | Nicholas Kristof chooses Crooked Timber for Xmas | Gallagher on Vargas Llosa on Berlin and others | Mario Vargas Llosa on Caute | John Banville picks Building as a book of the year | Building named ‘Literature book of the year’ in the Sunday Times | John Banville on Building | The development of the text of Two Concepts of Liberty | Berlin in Iran | Anniversary item in Jewish Currents | All 11 of the new Princeton covers together | Walter Laqueur on Caute | Isaiah Berlin Lecture (in English) by Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands [video also available] | Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga, including video of John Gray’s keynote lecture and a debate on Europe | Works submitted for a Latvian competition to illustrate quotations from Berlin (more about this on Facebook) | Robert Wistrich on Caute | Ferdinand Mount on Caute | Robert Kaiser on Caute | A Dutch review of the letters | Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme reviews the new edition of The Crooked Timber of Humanity | Dubnov versus Kelly in the New York Review | David Mikics on Caute | John Jolliffe on the letters (briefly) | Podcast of the June NYRB conference on Berlin, Hampshire and Williams | Jewish Chronicle review of the letters | Duncan Kelly on the letters, Caute and Cherniss | Mike Brearley invokes Berlin on cricket | New podcasts of Berlin lecturing | Harold Bloom tells an anecdote about Berlin (begins 9:40) | Julian Baggini on the letters | An Indian view of Caute | Robert Fulford on the new edition of The Hedgehog and the Fox | Jonathan Sacks’s memories of Berlin (begins 15:30) | Duncan White on the letters and more | Nicholas Lezard on the new edition of ‘Crooked Timber’ | Roger Morgan on Caute and Caute on himself | Adam Kirsch reviews Caute | Podcasts of Wolfson College’s Isaiah Berlin Lectures | Moral conflict, tragedy and political action in Berlin’s political thought | James Schmidt blog on ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ | Arie Dubnov talk on Berlin | D. J. Taylor on the letters and on Caute | Eric Christiansen reviews the letters | Spoof letter by John Crace | David Herman on the letters | Round-up of reviews of the letters | Lesley Chamberlain on the letters and on Caute | John Gray on the letters and on Caute | Kirkus on Caute on Berlin and Deutscher | Letters in Prospect | Tariq Ali on David Caute on Berlin | Dalya Alberge on a theme in Berlin’s letters | See the covers of the recent and upcoming Berlinian publications | A bird’s-eye view of Berlin by Henry Hardy | ‘My Name Is Isaiah Berlin, and I Come from Riga’ (video) | Aileen Kelly reviews Arie Dubnov | Kindle edition of The Book of Isaiah | Hedgehog and fox – again | Addis Mason reviews Arie Dubnov’s biography of Berlin | Can anyone identify any more of Berlin’s heroes and villains (on his study door)? | Lessons from Isaiah Berlin’s liberal Zionism | Arie Dubnov at Jewish Book Week | A Mind and Its Time: The Development of Isaiah Berlin’s Political Thought2012
Isaiah Berlin and the Politics of Freedom: ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’ 50 Years Later | Isaac and Isaiah: The Covert Punishment of a Cold War Heretic | Isaiah Berlin and the Humanity of History | Isaiah Berlin’s Cold War Liberalism: Conference Report | A note on the webmaster | IB’s Desert Island Discs | Spartacus Educational biography | Filmed interview with Michael Ignatieff | Footage of the future Aline Berlin disembarking from SS Excambion in New York, January 1941 | Berlin and Trevor-Roper | Isaiah Berlin and Counter-Enlightenment Liberalism | Berlin on Twitter | Berlin, Liberal Democracy, Russia and China | Anna: Love in the Cold War – new Hawaii run | Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture by Michael Ignatieff in Riga | Trailer for new film on Berlin, Eisenstein and Riga | Panels from centenary exhibition at Wolfson College | Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga, 6 June 2012 | Isaiah Berlin and the Riga of His Time | What is Jewish (if anything) about Isaiah Berlin’s philosophy? | ‘My Name Is Isaiah Berlin, and I Come from Riga’ (transcript) | The Wolfson College Isaiah Berlin Lecture 2012: Helena Kennedy | Liberal Pluralism and Its Critics: September colloquium in Paris | New Facebook page for Berlin | Isaiah Berlin Riga Memorial Lecture, 6 June 2012: Michael Ignatieff, ‘Isaiah Berlin, the Soviet Empire and the Captive Nations’ | What is true political wisdom? | Berlin in Moscow | Dag Einar Thorsen on Berlin, Popper and Neoliberalism | NKVD intercepts of IB’s wartime dispatches [search for ‘Halifax’] · Other examples in Alexander Vassiliev’s notebooks | The Bed, the Map and the Butterfly | Lucian Freud paints Isaiah Berlin2011
‘Bastardised libertarianism’ | Charles Blattberg on Berlin | Video clips of/about Berlin | Hermione Lee on Isaiah Berlin and Anna Akhmatova | Dressing like a grownup | Isaiah Berlin, part 4: Liberalism’s flawed freedom | Treacherous liberties | Isaiah Berlin, part 3: The anti-liberalism of the ‘big society’ | Isaiah Berlin, part 2: What Is ‘Good’ Freedom? | Berlin and Derrida | Michael Ignatieff on Berlin | Isaiah Berlin, part 1: What is liberalism? | So much for the Encyclopædia Britannica | Ich bin ein Berliner | The crooked timber of Isaiah Berlin | Adam Curtis’s TV treatment of negative and positive liberty | A reply to Perry Anderson | Rights must be grounded in eternal truths | Broken Britain: Blame Isaiah Berlin! | Why America is deeply in need of a good hedgehog | Head to Head (BBC Radio 4): Quentin Skinner and Paul Kelly on Berlin’s 1974 conversation with John Vaizey about equality | Great thinkers in their own words (BBC4): clips of Berlin in Episode 2 | New collection of essays in Spanish on Berlin | Berlin and anti-liberalism in Israel | Hedgehogs and foxes in Cameron’s cabinet | Book on Berlin by Connie Aarsbergen-Ligtvoet | Negative and positive liberty defined | Berlin the preserver of forgotten genius | Berlin and Riga | Two concepts of liberty in a nutshell | Perfectionist liberalism | Berlin and human rights | Liberalism in Australia | Is Jairam Ramesh a fox? | Berlin on the USA | Can the Pope be a Berlinian? | Berlin room in Ben-Gurion University | Documentary film by Michael Ignatieff | Angus Sibley on negative liberty | Can one be an American Zionist rabbi? | Aung San Suu Kyi on Berlin | Portrait by R. B. Kitaj
