First published 2011
Isaiah Berlin rejected writing his own autobiography but opened his life to Michael Ignatieff through a decade of interviews. The philosopher and historian sits with Ignatieff, recounting his journey from witnessing the Russian Revolution as the son of a Riga timber merchant to becoming a central figure in British intellectual life. Berlin describes his Oxford years during the 1930s ferment, his wartime role in Anglo-American diplomacy in Washington, and his postwar encounters with Stalinist despair in Moscow. He recalls meetings with Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, Churchill, Boris Pasternak, and Anna Akhmatova. Ignatieff probes beyond the public accomplishments of this scholar of Marx, the Romantic movement, and liberal freedom. He explores Berlin's internal struggles with Jewish identity and personal aspirations. The conversations reveal the private conflicts behind the public philosopher's contributions to understanding Russian intellectuals and defending liberal ideals.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, biography-memoir, academia, academic, jewish, jewish-question
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Moscow, Oxford, Riga, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Washington
Period: 1930s, 20th Century, Postwar
368 pages · Kindle Edition · Vintage Digital