From the pages of this book sounds a voice of rare purity and dignity. Engaging in moral reasoning and historical excursions, he is most occupied with commentary on the twentieth century, which he called the worst known. A philosopher and historian, Isaiah Berlin was neither a hero nor a martyr. A Russian Jew, born in Riga in 1909 and living through the revolution in Petrograd, had every chance of ending his days in a camp or at the front. Having outlived millions of his fellow countrymen and peers, Sir Isaiah Berlin died in 1997, endowed with British titles and world fame. His best essays are published in this volume.