Originally published in 1996 by Chatto & Windus, Ltd., London, England. Throughout his life, Berlin was concerned with such overarching ideas as the nature and significance of history, and the similarities between the qualities of writers and those of historians and statesmen. These concerns are reflected in a collection of nine essays drawn from Berlin's previously unpublished work. Topics include the momentous repercussions of the emergence of romanticism, the difficulties of constructing a systematic theory of history, and the roles of Immanuel Kant and Rabindranath Tagore in the growth of nationalism. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.