Herald of a Restless World - by Emily Herring (Hardcover)

About the Book

"At the dawn of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson (1859-1941) became the most famous philosopher on earth. Where prior thinkers sketched out a deterministic, predictable universe, he asserted the transformative power of individual consciousness and creativity. An international celebrity, he made headlines around the world debating luminaries like Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein about free will and time. The vision of creative evolution and freedom he presented was so disruptive that the New York Times branded him "the most dangerous man in the world." In Herald of a Restless World, Emily Herring recovers how Bergson captivated a society in flux. She shows how his celebration of the time-bending uniqueness of individual experience struck a chord with those shaken by modern technological and social change. Long after he faded from public view, his insights into memory, time, laughter, and the creative continue to shape how we see the world around us. Herald of a Restless World is an electrifying portrait of a singular intellect. Bergson's extraordinary insight into life's fundamental questions remains urgent and relevant to this day"--

Book Synopsis

The first English-language biography of Henri Bergson, the French philosopher who defined individual creativity and transformed twentieth-century thought--a "fascinating biography and magnificent revival of this brilliant thinker" (Skye Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic)

Named a Best Book of 2024 by the New Statesman

At the dawn of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson (1859-1941) became the most famous philosopher on earth. Where prior thinkers sketched out a deterministic, predictable universe, he asserted the transformative power of consciousness and creativity. An international celebrity, he made headlines around the world debating luminaries like Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein about free will and time. The vision of creative evolution and freedom he presented was so disruptive that the New York Times branded him "the most dangerous man in the world."

In Herald of a Restless World, Emily Herring recovers how Bergson captivated a society in flux. She shows how his celebration of the time-bending uniqueness of individual experience struck a chord with those shaken by modern technological and social change. Long after he faded from public view, his insights into memory, time, laughter, and creativity continue to shape how we see the world around us.

Herald of a Restless World is an electrifying portrait of a singular intellect. Bergson's extraordinary insight into life's fundamental questions remains urgent and relevant to this day.

Review Quotes

"[Herring is] a great writer with a light touch. She finds ways of telling stories and relating ideas and thinkers and thoughts and social events that are completely compelling... It is a really significant debut and she is a writer to watch."--Five Books, "The Best Philosophy Books of 2024"

"A vivid, graceful biography."--New York Times Editors' Choice

"Fascinating and lively...[Herring] has a genius for condensing complex philosophical and scientific postulates into digestible bites."--Nation

"Herring has a gift for description that makes her writing deeply engaging. The book is well plotted and draws the reader back to scenes as the narrative of a novel might do. Deemed a great writer who could plainly communicate complex ideas, Bergson, therefore, is deserving of a biographer who follows in his path." --Spectrum Culture

"Lively and deft."--New York Times

"Lucid and moving...Ms. Herring's biography is an extraordinary portrayal of a man and his ideas. It is difficult to imagine a biography of a thinker better than hers."--New York Sun

"Very readable... [Herring] presents a lively picture of an oddly contradictory character."--Society for Psychical Research

"A good primer on [Bergson's] ideas, which are needed more than ever."--Economist

"Intellectual history at its finest."--New Criterion

"The most intellectually stimulating book I read this year."--John Banville, New Statesman

"Very entertaining."--The New European

"Insightful...a much-needed reintroduction of Bergson to English-language readers."--Wall Street Journal

"Written in graceful prose and drawing a clear analogy with contemporary techno-optimism and its discontents, this captivates."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A solidly researched and earnestly accessible portrait of a creative, free-thinking intellect."--Kirkus

"From perfumed ladies to end-of-life mud baths, this beautifully written book tells the story of a seemingly unassuming, bowler-hatted Frenchman whose philosophy would sweep the world. Its profound ideas--evolution, consciousness, time--are explored with depth and humor in a way that is, appropriately, creative and new. Emily Herring has captured the magic and the mystique of Bergson."--Emily Thomas, author of The Meaning of Travel

"Henri Bergson thought nothing could be learned about a philosopher's ideas by studying their life. Herring proves him very wrong in this engaging biography of the Parisian thinker who accidentally became an international celebrity."--Nigel Warburton, author of A Little History of Philosophy

"Thanks to Herring, Bergson is back--and it's about time."--Matthew Sweet, author of Operation Chaos

"With flair and verve, Herring unveils the life and philosophy of the enchanting and trailblazing icon of change and creativity: Henri Bergson. The result is a fascinating biography and magnificent revival of this brilliant thinker who was once the most influential philosopher in the world. Herring's beautifully compelling narrative shows how Bergson's ideas still hold the power to illuminate the human experience and the meaning of life."--Skye Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic

About the Author

Emily Herring is a writer based in Paris. She received her PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Leeds, and her writing has appeared in Aeon and the Times Literary Supplement.