Joseph de Maistre and his European Readers: From Friedrich von Gentz to Isaiah Berlin

Following the publication of Isaiah Berlin’s essay on Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821), the Savoyard philosopher has been known primarily in the English-speaking world as a precursor of fascism. The essays in this volume challenge this view. Disclosing the inaccuracies and limitations of Berlin’s account, they illustrate Maistre’s colossally diverse European posterity. Far from an inflexible ideologist, Maistre was a versatile and deeply modern thinker who attracted interpreters across the political spectrum.

Through the centuries, Maistre’s passionate Europeanism has contributed to his popularity from Madrid to Moscow. And in our times, when religion is re-asserting itself as a source of public reason, his theorization of the encounter between tradition and modernity is lending his work ever more urgent relevance.

Cover illustration by Matthieu Manche