Karl Popper almost came to the University of Sydney in 1945. John Anderson invited him to join the staff in Philosophy but Popper delayed his decision in the hope of an offer from the London School of Economics. When that offer came he withdrew his application for Sydney and so Professor Anderson was spared the confrontation with an ego equal in size to his own.
Popper died in 1994 at the age of 92 and this is the first comprehensive book to appear on his life and work. Hacohen is a historian based at Duke University and he has charted the evolution of Popper's thinking with close attention to his intellectual influences and the explosive social and political tensions in Vienna which informed his thoughts on politics and ultimately prompted his flight to New Zealand. Over twenty years in the making, this is likely to be the standard reference for some time because the author had access to some recently opened archives and he also interviewed some longstanding colleagues of Popper such as Colin Simkin (from New Zealand) and John Watkins (of the London School of Economics) who are no longer with us.
The book has at least four different aspects, each of considerable interest. One is the reconstruction of Popper's intellectual career as he groped towards his seminal work in the philosophy of science and politics. The second is to give some impression of Popper the person, the being of flesh and blood who is practically invisible in his intellectual autobiography Unended Quest. The third is the recreation of the social and political milieu of Vienna, the life of high culture and intellectual achievement that thrived but finally expired under the volcano of fascism and anti-Semiticism. The fourth is Hacohen's mission to reclaim Popper for the social democrats, to snatch him back from the clutches of the Cold War liberals and the New Right.
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Rafe Champion on Malachi Hacohen, Karl Popper, The Formative Years, 1902-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
