Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), founding President of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, is regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. He was famous as an extempore lecturer, and his inimitable speaking style is well illustrated in this series of podcasts.
Episodes
The Romantic Revolution in Politics and Morals
A recently discovered good-quality recording of a lecture delivered by Berlin at Washington University in St Louis on 19 March 1969.
Some Sources of Romanticism: 6 – The Lasting Effects
The sixth and last of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism',
Some Sources of Romanticism: 5 – Unbridled Romanticism
The fifth of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism', edited b
Some Sources of Romanticism: 4 – The Restrained Romantics
The fourth of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism', edited
Some Sources of Romanticism: 3 – The True Fathers of Romanticism
The third of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism', edited b
Some Sources of Romanticism: 2 – The First Attack on Enlightenment
The second of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism', edited
Some Sources of Romanticism: 1 – In Search of a Definition
The first of Isaiah Berlin's famous 1965 Mellon Lectures In March–April 1965 Isaiah Berlin delivered his most famous series of public lectures, the A. W. Mellon Lectures (sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation), at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. The lectures were entitled 'Some Sources of Romanticism', and transcripts were published posthumously as 'The Roots of Romanticism', edited b
Capturing Genius: Editing Isaiah Berlin
Howard Burton talks to Henry Hardy, Fellow of Wolfson and author of ‘In Search of Isaiah Berlin: A Literary Adventure’, about being the principal editor of one of the twentieth century’s most captivating public intellectuals This podcast for the Ideas Roadshow discusses some of the joys and frustrations of working with Isaiah Berlin on his texts for the last twenty-three years of Berlin's life.
The Impact of Marx on the Nineteenth Century
Lecture by Isaiah Berlin on 5 October 1964 to the conference on ‘One Hundred Years of Revolutionary Internationals’ held at Stanford University to mark the centenary of the First International Working Men’s Association The full text from which the lecture is loosely derived is included as ‘Marxism and the International in the Nineteenth Century’ in Berlin’s collection 'The Sense of Reality: Studie
Political Judgement
A 1957 BBC Third Programme talk by Isaiah Berlin on the distinctiveness of the understanding and judgement we deploy in human affairs, especially in the field of politics 'What is it to have good judgement in politics? What is it to be politically wise, or gifted, to be a political genius, or even to be no more than politically competent, to know how to get things done?' These are the opening word
Anna Akhmatova reading her poems about Isaiah Berlin in Oxford in 1965
This podcast is in Russian. This short recording includes 'Cinque' and other poems inspired by the poet's meetings with Isaiah Berlin. The celebrated Russian poet Anna Akhmatova came to Oxford at Isaiah Berlin's instigation in June 1965, a year before her death, to receive an honorary DLitt. In this short recording, made at New College, Oxford, during her visit, she reads a number of her poems (in
The Origins of Cultural History: 1 – Two Notions of the History of Culture: The German versus the French Tradition
Isaiah Berlin gives the first of his Gauss Seminars at Princeton University on 'The Origins of Cultural History', 19 February 1973 Transcript at: https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/origins1.pdf Transcript at: https://isaiah-berlin.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/catalogues
The Origins of Cultural History: 2 – Geisteswissenschaft and the Natural Sciences: Vico versus Descartes
Isaiah Berlin gives the second of his three Gauss Seminars at Princeton University on 'The Origins of Cultural History', 20 February 1973 Transcript at https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/origins2.pdf Transcript at: https://isaiah-berlin.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/catalogues
The Origins of Cultural History: 3 – The Origins of the Conflict: Political Lawyers, Classical Scholars, Narrative Historians
Isaiah Berlin gives the third of his three Gauss Seminars at Princeton University on 'The Origins of Cultural History', 22 February 1973 Transcript at https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/origins3.pdf and https://isaiah-berlin.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/catalogues
Two Enemies of the Enlightenment: 3 – Joseph de Maistre
Isaiah Berlin gives the third of his four Woodbridge Lectures at Columbia University, New York, 27 October 1965 Transcript at https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/maistre.pdf. Recordings have been found only of the second and third lectures.
Two Enemies of the Enlightenment: 2 – J. G. Hamann
Isaiah Berlin gives the second of his four Woodbridge Lectures at Columbia University, New York, 26 October 1965 Transcript at https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/lists/nachlass/hamann.pdf. Recordings have been found only of the second and third lectures.
A Very Personal Impression: Isaiah Berlin
This talk was given at Wolfson College on 28 May 2009 as part of the 'Lives and Works' series of lectures
From Communism to Zionism: Moses Hess (1957)
1957 Lucien Wolf Memorial Lecture. Lecture on the Jewish philosopher Moses Hess, one of the founders of Zionism and a committed Socialist. Berlin also discusses Hess’s evolution as a philosopher, from International Socialism to Zionism. Published in Berlin's collection 'Against the Current' (1979; 2nd ed. 2013)
A Fire at Sea (1957)
Isaiah Berlin introduces and reads his translation of Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev's short story 'A Fire at Sea', in which Turgenev recounts an embarrassing episode from his youth. Originally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 23 July 1957. Published with Berlin's translation of Turgenev's 'First Love' in 'First Love [and] A Fire at Sea' (1982)
Alexander Herzen: His Opinions and Character (1955)
Lecture on Alexander Herzen, philosopher and founder of Russia’s first free press. Berlin discusses Herzen’s passionate belief in individual liberty and his distaste for the new violent radicalism in the Russia of his time. The last of four Northcliffe Lectures delivered at University College London in October–November 1954 as 'A Marvellous Deacde: Literature and Social Criticism in Russia 1838–48
Freedom and Its Betrayal: 2 – Jean Jacques Rousseau (1952)
Berlin lectures on Rousseau's 'On the Social Contract' and discusses his anti-intellectualism, his idealism of Nature, and the worryingly authoritarian implications of his philosophy. Originally broadcast on the BBC Third Programme in 1952. The only recording that survives from this six-lecture series, based on his Mary Flexner Lectures, 'Political Ideas in the Romantic Age', at Bryn Mawr College,
