More on Gertrude ‘Silly’ Himmelfarb, intellectual muse to both the current UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the next (ha ha), David Cameron. In last weekend’s Guardian, Steven Poole reviewed her new book, The Moral Imagination:
“Most artificial is her essay on JS Mill, which pleads with us to ignore the apparently too-familiar On Liberty, and direct our eyes instead to a man she capitalises as The Other Mill. He is the author of Himmelfarb’s careful selection from Mill’s early writings, in which he expresses exasperation with the public’s mental incontinence and recommends a “restraining discipline” in moral education. By some anachronistic magic, all this is supposed with relief to “refute” the arguments of On Liberty, which we may then safely ignore. No doubt an inspiring message for the present government.”
Read the full review.
