Four Essays on Liberty

By Isaiah Berlin

Categories: History, Politics & Social Sciences

First published in 1969, this book collects four essays by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin: "Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century," "Historical Inevitability," "Two Concepts of Liberty" and "John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life," with a long introduction in which he answered his critics. "Two Concepts of Liberty," his 1958 inaugural lecture at Oxford, drew a distinction between negative liberty, or freedom from interference, and positive liberty, the freedom to be one's own master.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “When I was heading off to college, a family friend gave me a copy of Isaiah Berlin’s “Four Essays on Liberty.” It has profoundly shaped my political views and sensibilities. … Still, it’s a great book.”