Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas - Second Edition

In this outstanding collection of essays, Isaiah Berlin, one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, discusses the importance of dissenters in the history of ideas—among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen, and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, Berlin brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times—and still challenge conventional wisdom.


In a new foreword to this corrected edition, which also includes a new appendix of let...