The Roots of Romanticism at last makes available in printed form Isaiah Berlin's most famous lecture series, the Mellon Lectures, delivered in Washington in 1965, recorded by the BBC, and broadcast several times. A published version has been keenly awaited ever since the lectures were given, and indeed Berlin had always hoped to complete a book based upon them. But, despite extensive further work, this hope was not fulfilled, and this book is an edited transcript of his spoken words. For Berlin, the Romantics set in train a vast unparalleled revolution in humanity's view of itself. They destroyed the traditional notions of objective truth and validity in ethics, with incalculable, all-pervasive results. As he said of them elsewhere: 'the world has never been the same since, and our politics and our morals have been deeply transformed by them. Certainly this has been the most radical, and indeed terrifying...change in men's outlook in modern times.' In these brilliant lectures Berlin surveys the myriad attempts to define Romanticism, distils its essence, traces its development from its first stirrings to its unbridled apotheosis, and shows how its lasting legacy permeates our contemporary outlook.

以賽亞·伯林（1909—1997） 英國哲學傢和政治思想史傢，二十世紀最著名的自由主義知識分子之一。齣生於俄國裏加的一個猶太人傢庭，1920年隨父母前往英國。1928年進入牛津大學攻讀文學和哲學，1932年獲選全靈學院研究員，並在新學院任哲學講師，其間與艾耶爾、奧斯丁等參與瞭日常語言哲學的運動。二戰期間，先後在紐約、華盛頓和莫斯科擔任外交職務。1946年重迴牛津教授哲學課程，並把研究方嚮轉嚮思想史。1957年成為牛津大學社會與政治理論教授，並獲封爵士。1966年至1975年，擔任牛津大學沃爾夫森學院院長。主要著作有《卡爾·馬剋思》（1939）、《自由四論》（1969，後擴充為《自由論》）、《維柯與赫爾德》（1976）、《俄羅斯思想傢》（1978）、《概念與範疇》（1978）、《反潮流》（1979）、《個人印象》（1980）、《扭麯的人性之材》（1990）、《現實感》（1997）等。