Isaiah Berlin - podcast cover

Isaiah Berlin

Oxford Universityberlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk
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.
Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

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', edited by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press...

Nov 21, 20211 hr 12 min

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 by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press). A sec...

Nov 21, 202158 min

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 by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press). A seco...

Nov 21, 202158 min

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 by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press). A seco...

Nov 21, 202153 min

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 by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press). A sec...

Oct 27, 202157 min

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.

Sep 30, 20211 hr 58 min

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 by Henry Hardy (London, 1999: Chatto and Windus; Princeton, 1999: Princeton University Press). A seco...

Sep 07, 202151 min

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: Studies in Ideas and Their History', edited by Henry Hardy (London, 1996: Chatto and Windus; 2nd ed., Prin...

Sep 03, 20211 hr 15 min

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 words of this 1957 BBC Third Programme talk, from the series 'Thinking about Politics', in which the cel...

Sep 03, 202129 min

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 original Russian). Some of them were inspired by Berlin's visits to her in Leningrad in 1945–6....

May 23, 201413 min

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.

Jul 31, 20131 hr 1 min

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.

Jul 31, 201356 min

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)

Apr 15, 20091 hr 2 min

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)

Apr 15, 200930 min

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' and published as 'A Remarkable Decade' in Berlin's collection 'Russian Thinkers' (1978; 2nd ed. 20...

Apr 15, 200941 min

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, Pennsylvania, in spring 1952; published in 'Freedom and Its Betrayal' (2002; 2nd ed. 2014)

Apr 14, 200952 min
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android