作者通过对“人的救赎”这一问题的沉思，将现实的各个领域纳入其视域，对存在、上帝、自然、社会、国家、战争、民族主义、资产性、金钱、社会主义、爱欲、美感、艺术等，进行了全面的剖析；同时也对自近代以来困扰诸多哲人的自由与客体化问题给出了自己的答案。 本书可谓是别尔嘉耶夫的“百科全书”，囊括了他所有的基本思想，并借以反思其一生的哲学历程，其所触涉的范围之广、力度之深，在别尔嘉耶夫那里也是仅此唯一的。

Attempting to provide a sociological explanation of the Holocaust, the main theme of this work is the demonstration that the Holocaust has to be understood as deeply involved with the nature of modernity - neither a single event nor a simple outpouring of barbarism. The author discusses what sociology can teach us about the Holocaust, but more particularly concentrates upon the lesson which the Holocaust has for sociology. There are two ways, he points out, in which the significance of the Holocaust can be side-stepped in our understanding of modernity. One way is to present the Holocaust as something which happened to the Jews, as an event in Jewish history. A second way is to regard the Holocaust as representing loathsome aspects of social life which the progress of modernity will increasingly overcome. Neither of these views stand up to scrutiny, according to the author.

近几十年来少有的关于马基雅维利的有深度的传记。作者叙述了这位权力大师在文艺复兴时代佛罗伦萨度过的童年和青年时代，考察了他作为一个政治家和外交家的生涯，尤其是作为一个理论上的探讨权力的大师，但自身在政治上并不成功的一生。无疑，马基雅维利是一个复杂的、有争议的人物，他关于权力的理论既得到像尼采、阿伦特这样的大思想家的赞同，也被更多的思想家所批评。