Isaiah Berlin

Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was born in Riga, Latvia. As a child, he emigrated with his family to Saint Petersburg, where he witnessed the Russian Revolution in 1917. In 1921, his family settled in England, and he studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He taught social and political theory at various colleges in Oxford and achieved all the highest academic honors, some of which he held until his death in 1997. He also served as the president of the British Academy. One of the most distinguished thinkers of the 20th century, he authored numerous books on the history of ideas, including "Karl Marx, His Life and Environment" (1939), "Four Essays on Liberty" (1969), "Against the Current" (1979), "The Roots of Romanticism" (1962/1999), "The Crooked Timber of Humanity" (1990), "Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty" (1952/2002), "The Soviet Mind: Russian Culture under Communism" (2004), among others.