The Reith Lectures

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Robert Gardiner discusses the issues of race in his Reith series entitled 'A World of Peoples'. Born in Ghana, he has worked as the Head of the Ghana Civil Service, is a former Deputy Executive Secretary for the Economic Commission for Africa and has authored the book 'Development of Social Administration'. In this lecture en...

Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Robert Gardiner discusses the issues of race in his Reith series entitled 'A World of Peoples'. Born in Ghana, he has worked as the Head of the Ghana Civil Service, is a former Deputy Executive Secretary for the Economic Commission for Africa and has authored the book 'Development of Social Administration'. In this lecture en...

Professor John Kenneth Galbraith is the Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University and is the author of 'The Affluent Society'. In his Reith series entitled 'The New Industrial State', he explores the economics of production. In this lecture entitled 'The Role of the State', Professor Galbraith explores the relationship states have with large Corporations. He argues that the state...

This year's Reith lecturer is the British social anthropologist Professor Edmund Leach. He is the current Provost of King's College, Cambridge and throughout his academic career he has challenged received notions about cultural change. He explores the notion of 'relational structures' in his Reith series entitled 'A Runaway World?' In this lecture entitled 'Ourselves and Others', Professor Edmund...

This year's Reith lecturer is the British social anthropologist Professor Edmund Leach. He is the current Provost of King's College, Cambridge and throughout his academic career he has challenged received notions about cultural change. He explores the notion of 'relational structures' in his Reith series entitled 'A Runaway World?' In this lecture entitled 'Only Connect', Professor Leach concludes...

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson contemplates the political world order in his Reith series entitled 'Peace in the Family of Man'. In this lecture entitled 'The United States of the World', Lester Pearson contemplates the concept of nationalism. What is a national identity? How can we dispel the emotions and prejudices which are wrapped up in it? And how d...

This year's Reith lecturer is English ecologist, conservationist and author Sir Frank Fraser Darling. He is the current Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and his ornithological ideas have marked him as a specialist on the topic of the natural environment. He also worked as a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation at the University of Edinburgh (1953-58) and was C...

The Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the concept of Man's responsibility for his natural environment in his Reith series entitled 'Wilderness and Plenty'. In his second lecture entitled 'Impact of Man on His Environment', Sir Fraser Darling explores the continuous affect of man on his natural habitat. Taking ex...

The Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the concept of Man's responsibility for his natural environment in his Reith series entitled 'Wilderness and Plenty'. In his third lecture entitled 'The Technological Exponential', Sir Frank Fraser Darling examines the ecological consequences of technology since the industri...

The Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the concept of Man's responsibility for his natural environment in his Reith series entitled 'Wilderness and Plenty'. In his fourth lecture entitled 'Global Changes - Actual and Possible', Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the problem of overpopulation and its likely effect...

The Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the concept of Man's responsibility for his natural environment in his Reith series entitled 'Wilderness and Plenty'. In his fifth lecture entitled 'The Forward Look in Conservation', Sir Fraser Darling reflects on the art of conservation. He considers how technology and pre...

The Vice-President of the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC and renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling explores the concept of Man's responsibility for his natural environment in his Reith series entitled 'Wilderness and Plenty'. In his final lecture entitled 'Where Does Responsibility Lie?', Sir Fraser Darling argues that population is almost certain to increase but pollution does no...

This year's Reith lecturer is the influential thinker Donald Schon. Previously a Professor of philosophy at the University of California, he was the director of the Institute for Applied Technology in the National Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce. He is currently the co-founder and director of the Organization for Social and Technological Innovation (OSTI), a non-profit social research...

The British academic and Assistant Director General of UNESCO Richard Hoggart explores the concepts of communication in his Reith lecture series entitled 'Only connect'. In this lecture entitled 'Common Ground', Richard Hoggart evaluates the role of passing information to each other via a system of communication. He asks, now that we have developed at an almost unbelievable speed, what happens nex...

This year's Reith lecturer is political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield. Currently the Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), he has previously worked as economic editor and foreign editor for The Observer (1958–61) and the Financial Times (1947–57). After fifteen years in journalism, he became the Director of Studies at the RIIA before a brief stint as Chairman of the Soc...

Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield gives the second of his Reith lectures from his series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination'. In this lecture entitled 'The French Spirit and the British Intruder', Sir Andrew Shonfield identifies the problems in creating a European Federation. He explores how political identity is...

Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield gives the third of his Reith lectures from his series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination'. In this lecture entitled 'The American Connection: a Grumbling Alliance', Sir Shonfield explores the European Community's relations with the rest of the world and in particular, The United S...

Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield gives the fourth of his Reith lectures from his series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination'. In this lecture entitled 'A European Foreign Policy towards Asia and the Soviet Bloc', Sir Shonfield explores the policy problems of the enlarged European Community in relation to the rest...

Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield gives the fifth of his Reith lectures from his series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination'. In this lecture entitled 'From Technocracy to Democracy?', Sir Shonfield considers how the inclusion of the British into the European Community could lead to a more politically democratic fo...

Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and political economist Sir Andrew Shonfield gives the sixth of his Reith lectures from his series entitled 'Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination'. In this lecture entitled 'Wanted: An Instrument for Crisis Management', Sir Shonfield considers the long-term future of the European Community. Analysing the effect of Britain's entry, he al...

Alastair Francis Buchan, the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations for Oxford University, reflects on the global power of the United States of America in his third Reith lecture. Speaking from his series entitled 'Change without War', he reflects on new international relations. In this lecture entitled 'The Troubled Giant', Professor Alastair Buchan explores why the United States of...

Alastair Francis Buchan, the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations for Oxford University, explores the concept of 'transnationalism' in his sixth Reith lecture. Speaking from his series entitled 'Change without War', he concludes his lectures on international relations. In this lecture entitled 'The Search for a New Order', Professor Alastair Buchan speculates whether we might be ab...

This year's Reith lecturer is the eminent German-British sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf. Previously a Professor of Sociology at the Universities of Hamburg, Tübingen and Konstanz, he has been a leading figure for liberal politics and an authority on class divisions in modern society. In 1970 he became the European Commissioner in Brussels before taking over as Director of the London School of Economi...

Professor of Sociology and Director of the London School of Economics Ralf Dahrendorf gives his second Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The New Liberty'. In this lecture entitled 'The Liberal Option', Professor Dahrendorf explores the liberal options available to society. He questions why recognised problems in society, which also have visible solutions, do not make any great progress. Who...

Professor of Sociology and Director of the London School of Economics Ralf Dahrendorf gives his third Reith lecture from his series entitled 'The New Liberty'. In this lecture entitled 'Justice Without Bondage', Professor Dahrendorf evaluates how liberty has been misinterpreted as equality and justice. He claims that advanced demographic societies are bound by a fear of political correctness. In t...