In a
May 14 review of Gordon Wood's new (2011) book, James Ceasar writes,
Referring to Isaiah Berlin's famous classification of writers into the categories of the fox (one who knows many things) and the hedgehog (one who fixates on one subject), Mr. Wood describes himself as "a simple hedgehog."
In my
review of his book,
Empire of Liberty (2010), published last summer, I wrote,
In Isaiah Berlin’s terms Wood is a hedgehog: he knows one big thing.
Notwithstanding the precision and economy of my language in comparison to Ceasar's, I am led to ask: has Gordon Wood read my review?! (Also, gee, aren't those Americans polite? Since when did we still refer to scholars as "Mr" so-and-so?)
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