Isaiah Berlin was witness to a century. Born in the twilight of the Czarist empire, he lived long enough to see the Soviet state collapse.

The son of a Riga timber merchant and the first Jew elected to a fellowship at All Souls, Oxford, he was a historian of Russian intelligentsia, biographer of Marx, scholar of the Romantic movement, and defender of the liberal idea of freedom against Soviet tyranny.

In this definitive biography, a remarkable ten-year collaboration between biographer and subject, Michael Ignatieff charts the emergence of a unique liberal temperament—serene, comic, secular, and unafraid—while examining its influence on Berlin's vision of liberalism, which stressed the often tragic nature of political and moral choice.

A masterful work, illuminating, and beautifully written, Isaiah Berlin: A Life is destined to take its place among the great modern biographies.

"Michael Ignatieff has written a brilliant, tender, and insightful biography of this complex, important, and influential thinker." —The Globe and Mail

Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian writer and historian. His books include Scar Tissue (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Russian Album, Blood And Belonging, The Warrior's Honour, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror, and The Rights Revolution. His work has been translated into many languages and awarded numerous prizes and awards. Before being elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament in 2006, he was Professor of Human Rights and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Until May 2011 Ignatieff was leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He lives in Toronto, where he teaches at the University of Toronto.

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"Elegantly written…. A superb job of linking the philosophical and political to the personal." —Maclean's

"Michael Ignatieff has written a brilliant, tender and insightful biography of this complex, important and influential thinker." —The Globe and Mail

"This is a biography of elegant sensibility, tenderly composed and driven by patent respect." —The National Post

"No other recent work of Canadian non-fiction has impressed more with its deftness than [Ignatieff's] Isaiah Berlin." —The New Brunswick Reader
"Isaiah Berlin: A Life is an elegant, meditative, pithy summary of the man, his times, and his thought…. An intellectual feast, a worthy monument to a towering figure." —The Gazette (Montreal)

"Like anything by Ignatieff, this is a thoughtful, useful book, distinguished by its lucid prose and deep erudition…. Michael Ignatieff is to be thanked for this biography. Hopefully, it will take readers back to the riches of Berlin's work, and to thoughtful, critical reflection on the tradition of liberalism he celebrated." —Vancouver Sun

"Michael Ignatieff's take on Isaiah Berlin should make it to the top of everyone's list…. This is one of those books that one wants to read slowly, to savour the balance and delicacy of the sentences and to marvel at the subtlety and judisciousness of his insights. The other reason for this success has to do with of its subject. Isaiah Berlin was a remarkable man." —The Edmonton Journal