Isaiah Berlin : The Journey of a Jewish Liberal (Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History)

This study offers a fresh reappraisal of the philosopher, political thinker, and historian of ideas Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) from childhood to the height of his intellectual career. It provides the first historically contextualized study of Berlin''s formative years and identifies different stages in his intellectual development, allowing a reappraisal of his theory of liberalism. Applying a ''double perspective'' that examines Berlin both as an East European Jewish émigré as well as a British Liberal intellectual, author Arie Dubnov stresses the very ambivalent relation between Berlin''s liberal philosophy and his pro-Zionist sentiments.