New Books

Book of the Month recommendation: The Book of Isaiah: Personal Impressions of Isaiah Berlin.

One of the greatest philosophical minds of the 20th century was Isaiah Berlin. His book, The Proper Study of Mankind (1997), made a deep impression on me. The Modern Library considers it the 17th best non-fiction book of the 20th century. The book is a collection of essays. Berlin’s insights are well reasoned, deep, and told in the prose of a superb talker. His essay on Machiavelli caused a permanent shift in my views of politics, ethics and history. This is an essay, along with the one entitle, On The Pursuit of an Ideal, that should be read and absorbed by all would be statesmen.