Affirming

One of the great thinkers of the age. Anyone seeking to understand the 20th century should acquire this volume, and its three predecessors. They will be both stimulated and enlightened – Vernon Bogdanor, five stars * Daily Telegraph *This fourth and final volume of Berlin’s letters, admirably edited by Henry Hardy and Mark Pottle, brings vividly back to life one of the most wise, witty and generous of men – Philip Ziegler * Spectator *The great magus of 20th-century liberalism – Matthew d’Ancona * Guardian *Berlin, at his best, reminding us that he was one of the great liberal thinkers of the postwar period – David Herman * New Statesman *Modest, polite and beautifully written, these letters can be viewed as open-ended conversations with kindred spirits. They are also an important attempt to document the history of the late 20th century. * Prospect *Modest, polite and beautifully written, these letters can be viewed as open-ended conversations with kindred spirits. They are also an important attempt to document the history of the late 20th century. * Prospect *Affirming: Letters 1975–1997, edited, superbly, by Henry Hardy and Mark Pottle, is a joy only slightly dulled by the knowledge that it is the final volume of Isaiah Berlin’s wise, witty and never less than entertaining correspondence. – John Banville * Guardian, Best Books of 2015 *Isaiah Berlin’s Affirming: Letters 1975-1997 … contains some wonderful letters and a huge dollop of Berlin’s capacious mind as well as his fondness for gossip. – Justin Cartwright * Guardian, Best Books of 2015 *Starbursts of thought […] texts full of gaiety, passion and temperance, which insistently resist the rampaging squaddies of mindless populism – Richard Davenport-Hines * The Times Literary Supplement *A triumphant conclusion [to] one of the most remarkable literary projects of our time … amusing, compelling and illuminating … Berlin’s Letters stand as a monument to European, Jewish, liberal civilisation in what may prove to be the last century of its recognisable flourishing – S. J. D. Green * Standpoint *

Isaiah Berlin was born in Riga, now capital of Latvia, in 1909. When he was six, his family moved to Russia, and in Petrograd in 1917 Berlin witnessed both Revolutions - Social Democratic and Bolshevik. In 1921 he and his parents emigrated to England, where he was educated at St Paul’s School, London, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Apart from his war service in New York, Washington, Moscow and Leningrad, he remained at Oxford thereafter - as a Fellow of All Souls, then of New College, as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, and as founding President of Wolfson College. He also held the Presidency of the British Academy.His published work includes Karl Marx, Russian Thinkers, Concepts and Categories, Against the Current, Personal Impressions, The Sense of Reality, The Proper Study of Mankind, The Roots of Romanticism, The Power of Ideas, Three Critics of the Enlightenment, Freedom and Its Betrayal, Liberty, The Soviet Mind and Political Ideas in the Romantic Age. As an exponent of the history of ideas he was awarded the Erasmus, Lippincott and Agnelli Prizes; he also received the Jerusalem Prize for his lifelong defence of civil liberties. He died in 1997.Henry Hardy, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is one of Isaiah Berlin’s Literary Trustees. he has (co-)edited many other books by Berlin – including this volume’s three predecessors, Flourishing, Enlightening and Building – and other authors, and is also the editor of The Book of Isaiah- Personal Impressions of Isaiah Berlin (2009).Mark Pottle is also a Fellow of Wolfson. He has (co-)edited the diaries and letters of Violet Bonham Carter, has collaborated in publishing a number of original First World War documents, and was Research Associate, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2000-2. He co-edited the preceding volume of these letters, Building.

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