Bertrand Russell

The BBC has updated its Reith Lectures microsite. At present 194 broadcasts are available, with the earliest recording being Frank Fraser Darling’s broadcasts from 1969.

The Reith Lectures were inaugurated in 1948 by the BBC to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Sir John (later Lord) Reith, the corporation’s first director-general. The very first Reith lecturer was the philosopher, Bertrand Russell who spoke on ‘Authority and the Individual’. Among his successors were Arnold Toynbee (The World and the West, 1952), Robert Oppenheimer (Science and the Common Understanding, 1953) and J.K. Galbraith (The New Industrial State, 1966). More recently, the Reith lectures have been delivered by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks (The Persistence of Faith, 1990), Jean Aitchison (The Language Web, 1996), Patricia J. Williams (Race and Race Relations, 1997), John Keegan (War and Our World, 1998) Anthony Giddens (Runaway World, 1999) and Onora O’Neill (A Question of Trust, 2002).

To access the archive, visit: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-reith-lectures/archive/