Mr. Jericho’s Piercing Eyes

Abstract

I hate responsibility.

—Berlin to Elizabeth Bowen, no date, probably July 1937

The thirties was a decade in which Berlin, already enjoying small celebrity thanks to his appointment to All Souls, underwent a remarkable change. First, this was a decade marked by slow, gradual, yet consistent politicization. This was a twofold politicization, marked by the discovery of non-Marxist socialism on the one hand, and political Zionism on the other. By the outbreak of World War II Berlin had become a pink liberal and a Weizmannite Zionist.