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‘all the vigour, pace and raciness of live talks
... We shall not see his like again.’
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John Banville, Irish Times
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‘These essays continue to stand as a powerful defence
of liberty, and a warning against the passions of fanatics and fundamentalists
of all creeds across the centuries.’
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Joshua Cherniss, Oxonian Review of Books
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‘Berlin’s train of thought is a joy to follow, never
dull or dry ... If you had to grab only one book of his off the shelves,
you could do worse than take this one’
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Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
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‘a perfect introduction to Berlin’
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Richard D. North, Independent
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‘Berlin is possessed of an extraordinary gift for
explaining complex ideas in clear and simple language, without appearing
to dumb down, back off or gloss needlessly ... Masterful.’
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Good Book Guide
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‘Berlin at his best: forceful without being bombastic,
energetic without exaggerating, erudite without showing off’
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Peter Watson, The Times Higher Education Supplement
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‘Isaiah Berlin’s ground-breaking radio lectures’
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Bridget Kendall, ‘The Age of Freedom’, BBC Radio
3
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‘in a remarkably narrow compass [Berlin] takes us
deep into the crisis of modern political ideas and makes us experience
all the contradictions and complexities of our situation’
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Mark Lilla, New York Review of Books
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‘short enough for a single sitting, but meaty enough
to warrant sustained investigation ... [Berlin] argues forcefully, and with
rather astounding erudition, that negative freedom is our essential value.
And he contends that without it, tyranny will emerge, only disguised as
a new brand of freedom.’
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Eric de Place, amazon.com
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‘the most famous lectures Berlin ever gave ... they
fascinated and astounded their listeners, quickly turning Isaiah Berlin
into a household name. Never before had someone addressed such abstract
topics with such fluency and intensity ... these lectures, while presupposing
no specialist expertise, introduce ... some of the key issues in modern
political theory in an enthusiastic and quite unpatronising way.’
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Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
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‘When Sir Isaiah Berlin died in 1997, he left behind
many unpublished writings. Freedom and its Betrayal is the most
recent of these to appear in print, and among the most important. Based
on lectures that Berlin delivered for the BBC in 1952, the book offers
brief portraits of six major thinkers who were united by their refusal
to let individuals live as they choose. Considering how murky intellectual
history can sometimes seem, these lectures are astonishing for their lucidity
and power.’
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Darrin M. McMahon, Wall Street Journal
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‘In clear, precise prose, Berlin approaches the philosophy
of each of his subjects, first giving a fair overview of their central
thoughts before submitting them to a masterly scrutiny and dissection,
explaining where and how their ideas lead not, as they contended, to an
extension of human happiness and freedom but a curtailment of liberty.’
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Pete Whittaker, Tribune
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