Historical Inevitability
by . Oxford University Press, $2.00.
Isaiah Berlin, an Oxford philosopher who is an intellectual and literary virtuoso, offers us here a sparkling critique of the diverse doctrines which assert that history is made by factors beyond the control of individuals — by economic or biological factors, for instance; or by the “ rise and fall" of spiritual organisms such as religions and civilizations. At the root of all these doctrines — whether they be mild and civilized, such as Professor Toynbee’s, or furious and apocalyptic— Mr. Berlin sees a desperate wish to escape from the burden of human responsibility, and he trenchantly restates the case for believing that there exists a limited but nevertheless real area of human freedom.