ABSTRACT
England represented that happy blend of civility and common sense that Jacob L. Talmon displayed in his personality as well as political temperament. Talmon is one of a special group of Central European Jewish intellectuals who have helped define the nature of twentieth-century social and political life, giving shape to destructive potentials of our age only dimly understood by those who worship at the altar of absolute progress. Talmon's work deserves careful scrutiny. Whatever one thinks about his treatment of particular themes, he provides remarkable insight into an era of European preeminence that no longer exists, and that can no longer determine the fate of worlds. The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution, his final book, is a fitting conclusion not only to a personal career of outstanding brilliance but also to the end of a social epoch, one in which the European sensibility could still impose cultural order upon social chaos.
