The Proper Study of Mankind

"This engrossingly readable book of essays . . . contains ideas that suggest a devastating critique of the conservative utopian mentality that has shaped our lives over the past two decades . . . For anyone wanting to understand the twists and turns of the history of ideas, this book will be indispensable."—John Gray, The New York Times Book Review

"Berlin . . . addresses his essays to the general reader, and he speaks with such infectious energy that he sweeps us up and carries us with him into territory that had seemed inaccessible. He becomes everyman's guide to everything exciting in the history of ideas."—Robert Darnton, The New York Review of Books

"No one makes more sense of the intellectual chaos of the modern world, no one has more searching perceptions of the need and the limits of human judgment, no one embodies more realistically and intrepidly the hope of human reason."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Washington Post Book World