David Cannadine - “Of Hedgehogs and Foxes, 'Myths' and 'Reality': Isaiah Berlin and Winston Churchill Re-visited”
- Date
- 25 March 2025, 10:15–12:00
- Location
- SCAS, Thunberg Lecture Hall, Linneanum, Villavägen 6c, Uppsala
- Type
- Seminar
- Web page
- https://www.swedishcollegium.se
- Organiser
- Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS)
- Contact person
- Mattias Bolkéus Blom
Sir David Cannadine (Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study & Princeton University) will give a seminar on the topic “Of Hedgehogs and Foxes, 'Myths' and 'Reality': Isaiah Berlin and Winston Churchill Re-visited”. The seminar will be followed by a Q&A session. Hybrid event - see the webpage for the Zoom link.
ABSTRACT:
In 1949, Isaiah Berlin published his most widely read essay, generally known as 'Mr Churchill in 1940,' which was an extraordinarily effusive encomium on the wartime leader, and played a major part in his late-life apotheosis. While at SCAS, I am writing an essay on Berlin's essay, and am hoping to answer some or all of the following questions. How and how much did Churchill and Berlin know each other before Berlin wrote his essay? Why did Berlin lavish such extravagant praise on Churchill, and why did he do it when he did? What was the impact of what he wrote on Churchill's reputation and also on Berlin's, both at the time and subsequently? How far did what Berlin had written on Churchill inform some of his later articles on history and politics? And what did Berlin really think of Churchill?