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The Hedgehog And The Fox

An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History, With an Introduction by Michael Ignatieff
Series: W&N Essentials
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( 2,425 ratings, 268 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin explores the dichotomy between two types of thinkers, based on a fragment by the ancient Greek poet Archilochus: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Berlin examines this idea through the lens of Tolstoy’s view of history, analysing how these contrasting perspectives manifest in the works of various significant thinkers and artists in history.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you are fascinated by the interplay between different ways of thinking, as it explores the contrast between those who view the world through a single defining idea and those who draw on a wide variety of experiences and ideas. It's an insightful narrative that delves into arts and culture, inspired by a famous fragment from the ancient Greek poet Archilochus.

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'A dazzling tour de force. A rhetorical masterpiece, an intellectual firework display by a modern master' Robert McCrum, Guardian
Isaiah Berlin's classic essay on Tolstoy

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
'Brilliant. Searching and profound' E.H. Carr, Times Literary Supplement

'When reading Isaiah Berlin we breathe an altogether different air' New York Review of Books

'Beautifully written' W. H. Auden, New Yorker

'Ingenious. Exactly what good critical writing should be' Max Beloff, Guardian

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

For Isaiah Berlin, there is a fundamental distinction in mankind: those who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things - foxes - and those who relate everything to a central all-embracing system - hedgehogs. It can be applied to the greatest creative minds: Dante, Ibsen and Proust are hedgehogs, while Shakespeare, Aristotle and Joyce are foxes.

Yet when Berlin reaches the case of Tolstoy, he finds a fox by nature, but a hedgehog by conviction; a duality which holds the key to understanding Tolstoy's work, illuminating a paradox of his philosophy of history and showing why he was frequently misunderstood by his contemporaries and critics.

With a foreword by Michael Ignatieff

A W&N Essential

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Isaiah Berlin's The Hedgehog and The Fox is celebrated for its insightful and deeply intellectual analysis of Tolstoy's thought, praised as both entertaining and scholarly by the Observer. Reviewers highlight Berlin's eloquence and his keen understanding of Tolstoy's complex personality, with the New York Times noting his deep and subtle approach. The book is recognized as an important work on Tolstoy, featuring a lively and readable style according to the Sunday Mercury.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781474619707

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 April 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 132g

Pages: 144

About the Author

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM spent the whole of his professional life at Oxford, as a Fellow of All Souls College, a Fellow of New College, Chichele Professor of Social and Political theory and first President of Wolfson College. He is the author of many books and was President of the British Academy from 1974 until 1978. He died in 1997.

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