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Article: The human spirit under tyranny: Isaiah Berlin's The Soviet Mind.(Literature)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN 1940 ISAIAH BERLIN wrote to his father from New York. 'America," he said, "was a great big glaring sunlit extrovert over-articulated scene" and Americans were a "two-times-two equals four, sort of people, who want yes or no for an answer ..." What Berlin missed in America was, according to his biographer Michael Ignatieff, European "nuance". There were no mazes, nothing but flat clear vistas. Conversations with Americans were equally disappointing: "a total lack of salt, pepper, mustard".
All the more remarkable then, that an American, Strobe Talbott--with much "nuance" and picking his way with infinite tact through the "maze" of Berlin's hesitations--would ...