"People are my landscape," Isaiah Berlin liked to say, and nowhere is the truth of this observation more evident than in his letters. This second volume of Berlin's letters takes up the story when, after war service in the U.S., he returns to life as an Oxford don. Against the background of post-war austerity, the letters chart years of academic frustration and self-doubt, the intellectual explosion when he moves from philosophy to the history of ideas, his growing national fame as broadcaster and lecturer, the publication ...
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"People are my landscape," Isaiah Berlin liked to say, and nowhere is the truth of this observation more evident than in his letters. This second volume of Berlin's letters takes up the story when, after war service in the U.S., he returns to life as an Oxford don. Against the background of post-war austerity, the letters chart years of academic frustration and self-doubt, the intellectual explosion when he moves from philosophy to the history of ideas, his growing national fame as broadcaster and lecturer, the publication of some of his best-known works, his election to a professorship, and his reaction to knighthood. Berlin's visits to American universities, where he sees McCarthyism at work, and his journeys eastward--to Europe, Palestine (and later Israel), and the Soviet Union--inspire acute and often very funny portraits. These are the years, too, of momentous developments in his private life: the bachelor don's loss of sexual innocence, the emotional turmoil of his father's death, his courtship of a married woman, and his transformation into husband and stepfather.
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Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $25.99, good condition, Sold by Solr Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Skokie, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Random House UK.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $26.30, good condition, Sold by Hay-on-Wye Booksellers rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hereford, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2009 by Random House UK.
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Seller's Description:
Good. No jacket, clippings stapled to ffep. Light wear & marks to hardcover. Tanned textblock edge. Content is very good & clean. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 844 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white, Line drawings, black & white.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $34.15, new condition, Sold by Kennys.ie rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Galway, IRELAND.
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New. 2011. Paperback. Takes up the story of the author when, after war service in the United States, he returns to life as an Oxford don. This title charts years of academic frustration and self-doubt, the intellectual explosion when he moves from philosophy to the history of ideas, his growing national fame as broadcaster and lecturer. Num Pages: 880 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: BJ; BM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 232 x 151 x 50. Weight in Grams: 1066......We ship daily from our Bookshop.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946 – 1960 to cart. $35.45, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2011 by Pimlico.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $43.63, good condition, Sold by Hay-on-Wye Booksellers rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hereford, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2009 by Random House UK.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Ill fitting dustjacket, minor shelfwear to extremities of dustjacket, crease to dustjacket at top of spine, otherwise fine. Glued binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 844 p. Contains: Illustrations, black & white, Line drawings, black & white.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $48.64, very good condition, Sold by KimmiesCollection rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Maryville, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Random House UK.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $61.67, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Random House UK.
Add this copy of Enlightening: Letters 1946-1960 to cart. $115.00, like new condition, Sold by Satellite Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Burlington, VT, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Random House UK.
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Like New. Hardcover. Near fine / near fine dust jacket. Free of any markings and no writings inside. For any additional information or pictures, please inquire.
I cannot say that I or anyone would read closely every single letter but this volume will have something for everyone. For pure entertainment, Berlin was a marvelous gossip, some of it impishly malicious, but most of it probably pretty accurate summations of the social foibles and in particular work quality of the innumerable movers and shakers, both in politics and in academia, whom he knew. I find most of his musings on philosophy and the history of ideas pretty heavy sledding but as a literary critic he is nearly incomparable, and I wish he had published much more in that vein.
