Alexander Herzen—philosopher, novelist, essayist, political agitator, and one of the leading Russian intellectuals of the nineteenth century—was as famous in his day as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. While he is remembered for his masterpiece My Past and Thoughts and as the father of Russian socialism, his contributions to the history of ideas defy easy categorization because they are so numerous. Aileen Kelly presents the first fully rounded study of the farsighted genius whom Isaiah Berlin called “the forerunner of much twentieth-century thought.”
In an era dominated by ideologies of human progress, Herzen resisted them because they conflicted with his sense of reality, a sense honed by his unusually comprehensive understanding of history, philosophy, and the natural sciences. Following his unconventional decision to study science at university, he came to recognize the implications of early evolutionary theory, not just for the natural world but for human history. In this respect, he was a Darwinian even before Darwin.
Socialism for Russia, as Herzen conceived it, was not an ideology—least of all Marxian “scientific socialism”—but a concrete means of grappling with unique historical circumstances, a way for Russians to combine the best of Western achievements with the possibilities of their own cultural milieu in order to move forward. In the same year that Marx declared communism to be the “solution to the riddle of history,” Herzen denied that any such solution could exist. History, like nature, was contingent—an improvisation both constrained and encouraged by chance.
Aileen Kelly is Fellow of King’s College and Reader in Intellectual History and Russian Culture, Emerita, at the University of Cambridge.
Table of Contents
Cover Title Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Who Was Herzen? Chapter 2. Russia and the Romantic Revolution Chapter 3. A Romantic Youth Chapter 4. A Revolution in Science Chapter 5. Science and History Chapter 6. An Education in Method Chapter 7. Science and Saint-Simonism Chapter 8. Prison and Exile Chapter 9. Awakening Chapter 10. The Discovery of Chance Chapter 11. From Bacon to Feuerbach: Nature and Time Chapter 12. Man in the Middle Chapter 13. A Conservative Revolution Chapter 14. A Glowing Footprint: Herzen and Proudhon Chapter 15. Toward Another Shore Chapter 16. View from the Other Shore Chapter 17. The Living Truth Chapter 18. In Defense of Inconsistency Chapter 19. What Is History? Chapter 20. The Polish Uprising Chapter 21. True Nihilism Chapter 22. The Last Years Epilogue Notes Illustration Credits Index
