Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas - Wikipedia





	
	

	
	

	Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas

	
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		Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas 	2001 Princeton University Press edition

	Author	Isaiah Berlin
	Subject	History of Ideas
	Publisher	Pimlico
	Publication date
	1979
	Media type	Print (Paperback)
	Pages	300
	ISBN	0-7126-6690-7


Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas (1979) is a collection of essays by the 20th-century philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin. 


Summary[edit]

The collection was edited by Henry Hardy, and featured an introduction by Roger Hausheer. The book collects previously published essays in which Berlin discusses the thoughts of 20th century ideologic dissenters who were opposed to the prevailing wisdom of their time. A wide range of individuals are discussed including Machiavelli, Giambattista Vico, Montesquieu, Alexander Herzen, Georges Sorel, Verdi, and Moses Hess[1]

The collection represents Berlin's long-held interest in figures who held dissenting or minority views; but who, despite this, are now important influences on modern thought. By emphasizing these individuals, Berlin attempts to address the issue of imbalances in the history of ideas.[2] As Hausheer explains in the introduction: "At every step forward in our collective development, Berlin seems to say, we must pause to listen to the voices crying out in tortured dissent, or just raised to utter criticism, whether cautiously reasoned or wildly inchoate: we ignore them at our peril, for they may tell us something vital about ourselves".[3]

Included is "The Counter-Enlightenment" an essay first published in 1973. In this essay, Berlin explains his theory of a Counter-Enlightenment. Berlin traces the ideology of figures such as Giambattista Vico, from their opposition to enlightenment ideals to the emergence of Romanticism and Existentialism.


Publication history[edit]

	
Berlin, Isaiah (2000). Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691090269.
	
Berlin, Isaiah (1979). Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6492-0.


References[edit]


	^ 
"Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas". Princeton University Press. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.

	^ 
M.C., Chapman (February 1983). "Against the Current. Essays in the History of Ideas by Isaiah Berlin". Studies in Soviet Thought. 25 (2): 124.

	^ 
Berlin, Isaiah (1979). Against The Current. London: Pimlico. p. xv. ISBN 0-7126-6690-7.









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		Categories: 	1970 non-fiction books
	Books by Isaiah Berlin
	History books about philosophy
	Essay collections
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		 This page was last edited on 17 July 2020, at 06:52 (UTC).
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