Interviews

1962

1*Bamber Gascoigne, ‘Freedom of Speech’, in The Four Freedoms, no. 1, ATV, 1962: revised version of IB's draft of replies in Ted Honderich (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford, 1995: Oxford University Press), s.v. ‘Liberty’

1964

2*Alexander Kendrick, ‘The Oxford Way’, CBS television (USA), 1 February 1964

1965

3*Julian Budden, ‘The Concert Interval’, Network 3, 4 July 1965 (no recording or transcript survives?)

4Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, Oral History Interview on President Kennedy for the John F. Kennedy Library, 12 April 1965, Washington, DC (recording and transcript available online); edited and shortened version published as ‘On JFK’, New York Review of Books, 22 October 1998, 31–7

1966

5Henry Brandon, ‘A Philosopher Looks at the Future’, in Conversations with Henry Brandon (London, 1966: Deutsch), 11–39; unauthorised repr., ‘My Hopes and Fears’, Sunday Times, 6 November 1966, 41–2

6*Derek Cooper, ‘New Oxford College’, on appointment as President of new Wolfson College, Oxford, Home Service, 30 June 1966

1972

7*John Amis, ‘Stravinsky Died a Year Ago’, Radio 3, 6 April 1972

8*Graham Martin, ‘Roots of Romanticism’, Radio 4, 16 October 1972

1974

9K. L. Poll, ‘Een liberale moralist’, NRC Handelsblad, 9 April 1974, Cultural Supplement, 3

10*Man of Action, Radio 3, 12 October 1974

11*John Vaizey, ‘Equality, Liberty and Variety’, Radio 3, 19 June 1974

1975

12*Peter Jay, ‘Politics’, London Weekend Television, 31 August 1975

1976

13Martine de Courcel, ‘Malraux, the Russians of the thirties, and many other things, or Is the Parthian language really lost?’, in Martine de Courcel (ed.), Malraux: Life and Work (London, 1976: Weidenfeld and Nicolson); repr. in Partisan Review 43 (1976), 384–93

14*Alan Ryan, ‘Reconsidering John Stuart Mill, 2 Mill: The Manifold’, Radio 3, 6 October 1976

1978

15P.G., ‘Cosmopolitan Friend of Israel’ (Jacob Talmon), Jerusalem Post, 14 April 1978, ??

16Bryan Magee, ‘An Introduction to Philosophy’, BBC2 Television, 19 January 1978; published as ‘Sir Isaiah Berlin on Men of Ideas and Children’s Puzzles’, Listener, 26 January 1978, 111–13, and as ‘An Introduction to Philosophy: Dialogue with Isaiah Berlin’ in Bryan Magee (ed.), Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy (London, 1978: BBC), 1–27

17Carl Rudbeck, ‘Historielöshet är barbari’, Svenska dagbladet, Sunday, 5 November 1978, Kultur, 8–9

18*Anne Theroux (?), on Russian Thinkers, BBC World Service, 7 January 1978 (no recording or transcript survives?)

1979

19Frans Boenders, ‘Wijsbegeerte, geschiedenis en vrijheid’ (Philosophy, history and freedom), on Russian Thinkers and Concepts and Categories, in Sprekend gedacht (Thinking out loud) (Bussum, 1980: Het Wereldvenster), 171–90 (broadcast on Belgian Radio, February 1979)

20Miriam Gross, ‘Art for Liberation’s Sake’, Observer, 5 August 1979, 35

21*Vernon Sproxton, ‘Reinhold Niebuhr: A Timeless Prophet’, Radio 4, 18 March 1979

22*?, ‘Sir Isaiah Berlin at 70’, ‘External CTF (Magazines)’, ?June 1979 (no recording or transcript survives?)

1980

23*Edwin Mullins, ‘Personal Impressions’, on his book of that title, Kaleidoscope, Radio 4, 4 November 1980

1981

24Alex Hamilton, Guardian, 17 February 1981, 9

25*Bernard Levin, ‘The Levin Interview’, BBC2 Television, 23 May 1981

1982

26*Michael Berkeley, ‘Stravinsky: Man of Masks’, Radio 3, 6 June 1982

1983

26aChristian Descamps, ‘Isaiah Berlin: un intellectuel contre le progrès’, Le Monde Dimanche, 22 May 1983, letter, 3 July 1983, ii

27Enrique Krauze, ‘Isaiah Berlin and Our Liberal Predicaments’, Partisan Review 50 (1983), no. 1, 7–28; recording; trans. Spanish

28Kathy Field Stephen, Christian Science Monitor, 8 April 1983, B2 (more of a profile with quotes)

1984

29Didier Eribon, Le Nouvel Observateur, ? November 1984

30Jean-Jacques Lafaye, ‘Le penseur d’Oxford’, Magazine Littéraire, November 1984, 58–61

31Eli Shaltiel, ‘An Englishman as an Englishman, a Jew as a Jew’ (part of the series ‘Small Stories about Great People’), Koteret rashit [Main Headline, a weekly Israeli magazine published between 1982 and 1988], 26 April 1984, 31–3, 45

32Vigne, Eric, Libération, 19 November 1984, 35

1985

33Allegra Mostyn-Owen and Hugo Dixon, Isis, 17 May 1985, 8–9

1986

34Raymond Carr (trans. Carlos Dardé), ‘Isaiah Berlin: Contra la corriente’, Revista de Occidente no. 66 (November 1986), 103–39; Enlish original here

35Jeremy Tarsh and Jonathan Wolfson, ‘On Israel, Zionism and the Jews’, Jewish Chronicle, 18 April 1986, 31 (reprinted without permission from Windmill, the magazine of the Oxford University Israel Society, no. 1, Hilary Term 1986)

1987

35aGavriel (‘Gaby’) Cohen, 30 biographical interviews with IB, 1987–9

36Yael Tamir-Rafaeli, ‘Israel Must be a Liberal Democracy’, Israeli Democracy, February 1987, 10–14

1988

37Antonio Alférez, ‘El zahorí de la historia’, Diario 16, 20 February 1988, 4–5

37aMichael Ignatieff, 41 biographical interviews with IB and others, 1988–94

1989

38*John Drummond, ‘An Evening with Sir Isaiah Berlin’, Radio 3, 6 June 1989

39Lev Alekseevich Shilov, interview on Boris Pasternak, Albany, London, 1989; broadcast on Russian radio?

40Vsevolod Georgievich Shishkovsky (London correspondent of Russian State TV and Radio), Headington House, Oxford, April 1989, interview on Anna Akhmatova (principally) and Boris Pasternak; excerpts broadcast on Russian TV

41Guy Sorman, ‘Nous ne savons pas où est le port, il faut donc continuer à naviguer’, Les vrais penseurs de notre temps (Paris, 1989: Fayard); trans. German, Polish

1990

42Joseph Brodsky and Anatoly Naiman, ‘, Russkaya Mysl', 6 April 1990, v

43Rochelle Furstenberg, ‘Reflections of a Zionist Don’, Jerusalem Report, October 1990, 50–1

44Marco Marzano, ‘Liberta' non puo' essere soltanto una scatola vuota’, Avanti!, 19 September 1990, ?–11

45Mikhail Meilakh, Russkaya mysl', 22 June 1990, 12–13

46Dileep Padgaonkar, ‘Against the Current’, Times of India, 5 July 1990, 8

46aRichard Wollheim, ‘Isaiah Berlin in Conversation with Richard Wollheim’, 18 June and 2 July 1990, 2 May 1991, on this site

1991

47Suzanne Cassidy, ‘ “I think I hear them talk” ’, New York Times, Book Review section, 24 March 1991, 30

48*John Drummond, Radio 3, 23 December 1991

49Ramin Jahanbegloo, Isaiah Berlin en toutes libertés: entretiens avec Isaiah Berlin, trans. Gérard Lorimy (Paris, 1991: Éditions du Félin); repr. in its original English form as Ramin Jahanbegloo, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (London, 1992: Peter Halban; New York, 1992: Scribner’s; London, 1993: Phoenix; 2nd ed., London, 2007: Halban); excerpted in Jewish Quarterly 38 no. 3 (Autumn 1991), 15–26, Jewish Chronicle, 7 February 1992, Literary Supplement, ii, Guardian, 7 March 1992, 23, and (as ‘Philosophy and Life: An Interview’) New York Review of Books, 28 May 1992, 46–54; trans. Chinese (both scripts), German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish (complete and in part, by different translators)

50Nathan Gardels, ‘The Ingathering Storm of Nationalism: The Return of the Volksgeist’, New Perspectives Quarterly 8 no. 4 (Fall 1991), 4–10; repr. as ‘Two Concepts of Nationalism’ in New York Review of Books, 21 November 1991, 19–23 (corrections 5 December 1991, 58); repr. as ‘Return of the Volksgeist: Nationalism, Good and Bad’ in Nathan Gardels (ed.), At Century’s End: Great Minds Reflect on Our Times (La Jolla, 1995: ALTI Publishing; Dublin, 1997: Wolfhound Press); also available on this site; trans. Catalan, Chinese, Dutch (in part), German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish

51Lars Roar Langslet, ‘Mennesket lever i kraft av ideologiene’, Aftenposten, 18 January 1991, 40 (in ‘Kultur Magasinet’ section); repr. in Minerva, 2008 no. 3 (March), 68–73

52Françoise Sorbier, ‘Sir Isaiah Berlin, esprit hardi’, in Oxford, 1919–1939 (Paris, May 1991: Éditions Autrement, Série Mémoires no. 8)

53The Editors, Pauline 210 no. 540 [1991], 2–3

1992

54Juan Cruz, Babelia (supplement to El Pais) no. 30, 9 May 1992, 13–15; extract in Corriere della Sera, 19 July 1992, 5

55John Lewis Gaddis, John Lewis Gaddis Papers on George F. Kennan, Princeton University, interview with Isaiah and Aline Berlin, 29 November 1992; audio of part 1; part 2

56Salvador Giner, Claves de razón práctica no. 22 (May 1992), 44–7

56a*Michael Ignatieff, ‘The Late Show’, BBC2 Television, 5 February 1992

57*Sue Lawley, ‘Desert Island Discs’, Radio 4, 19 April 1992

58Steven Lukes, ‘Isaiah Berlin: Tra la filosofia e la storia delle idee’ [‘Between Philosophy and the History of Ideas’], Iride 8 (January–April 1992), 82–136; extract in Il Sole 24 Ore, 12 July 1993, 32, with article by Armando Massarenti; repr. in Isaiah Berlin, Tra la filosofia e la storia delle idee: la società pluralistica e i suoi nemici – intervista autobiografica e filosofica, ed. Steven Lukes (Florence, 1994: Ponte alle Grazie), together with other material; extract in La Repubblica, 26 March 1994, Cultura, [1]; part of English original published in Prospect, October 1997, 46–53 (an extract from this version appeared as ‘The wisest man in Britain’, Sunday Telegraph, 21 September 1997, Review, 1–2, 4; trans. German); whole English original published as ‘Isaiah Berlin in Conversation with Steven Lukes’ in Salmagundi no. 120 (Fall 1998), 52–134; extract trans. Polish in Przeglad polityczny 54 (2002), 124–32

59*Bryan Magee, ‘Nationalism’, Radio 3, 19 February 1992

1993

60Casey, Jean, ‘At Home with the Great Philosophers’, Guardian, 1 April 1993, 2–3

61‘Fragebogen’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin, 22 January 1993, 27: the questionnaire twice completed by Marcel Proust is completed by Berlin

62Stephan Sattler, ‘Was ist mit Paris los?’, Focus, 23 August 1993, 68–70

63*Susanna Simons, Classic FM interview, 4 March 1993

1994

64Edgardo Bartoli, ‘Il legno storto di sir Isaiah’, La Repubblica, 28 October 1994, 38–9

65Anders Björnsson, ‘Varför skall vi tala om Hamann’, Svenska Dagbladet, 17 January 1994, 19

66Sidney Brichto, ‘Words and Music’, Jewish Chronicle, 10 June 1994, 26

67Giancarlo Bosetti, ‘Siamo titti vittime del Romanticismo tedesco: ora vi spiego perché’ (on Hamann), Reset, April 1994 (Italian translation from English original); English text in id., ‘Isaiah Berlin: Monists and the Concoction of the Tragic Omelet’, in id., The Truth of Others: The Discovery of Pluralism in Ten Tales (Cham, 2023: Springer), 132–7

68Silvia Guzzetti, ‘L’Occidente tra Hitler e Marx’, Avvenire, 22 October 1994, ‘Terzapagina’, 17

69Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, ‘Nil Desperandum’, Odra 34 no. 6 (June 1994), 12–17 (Polish translation from English original); repr. in ead., Oblicza liberalizmu: Isaiah Berlin, John Gray, Steven Lukes, Joseph Raz w rozmowie z Beatą Polanowską-Sygulską [Visages of Liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, John Gray, Steven Lukes, Joseph Raz in Conversation with Beata Polanowska-Sygulska] (Kraków, 2003: Księgarnia Akademicka), 29–39; repr. in ead., Rozmowy z oksfordzkimi filozofami [Conversations with Oxford Philosophers] (Kraków, 2011: Księgarnia Akademicka), 43–54; English original published in Salmagundi nos 146–7 (Spring/Summer 2005), 170–183, and UD

70Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, ‘Nie chcę zbyt uładzonego świata’ [I don’t want the universe to be too tidy], Znak 46 no. 10 (October 1994), 114–21 (Polish translation from English original); repr. in ead., Oblicza liberalizmu: Isaiah Berlin, John Gray, Steven Lukes, Joseph Raz w rozmowie z Beatą Polanowską-Sygulską [Visages of Liberalism: Isaiah Berlin, John Gray, Steven Lukes, Joseph Raz in Conversation with Beata Polanowska-Sygulska] (Kraków, 2003: Księgarnia Akademicka), 17–27; repr. in ead., Rozmowy z oksfordzkimi filozofami [Conversations with Oxford Philosophers] (Kraków, 2011: Księgarnia Akademicka), 55–66; English original published in Salmagundi nos 146–7 (Spring–Summer 2005), 170–83 (as ‘Hottentots and Phobias: A Conversation with Sir Isaiah Berlin’), and in UD

71Igor Shaitanov, ‘[To be a liberal means to live and let live]’, Obshchaya Gazeta, 22–8 April 1994, 9

1995

72Quentin Letts in ‘Peterborough’ column, Daily Telegraph, 18 July 1995, ? (not really an interview, but cites remarks by IB on Stephen Spender)

73Adam Michnik, ‘Dobrzy ludzie budują gilotyne’ (‘Good People Build Guillotines’; Polish translation of a lost Russian original), Gazeta Wyborcza, 12–13 August 1995, Gazeta Świąteczna [the weekend supplement], 10–12

74Gaia Servadio, ‘Berlin: “Il secolo affoga nella noia”’, Corriere della Sera, 1 May 1995, 27

1996

75Michael Berkeley, ‘Private Passions’, Radio 3, 3 February 1996; Romulus [the magazine of Wolfson College, Oxford], [June] 2006, 5–8

76Anna Howard, in Death: Breaking the Taboo, interviews by Anna Howard (Evesham, 1996: Arthur James), 30–7; repr. in part as ‘Why I do not regret lying to my father about death’, The Times, 19 July 1996, 16

77Valentina Polukhina, 13 June 1996, London (on Joseph Brodsky): Znamya, November 1996, 130–3, in id., ‘Iosif Brodsky: trudy i dni’, ibid., 126–50

78Michael Wright, ‘The Rites and Wrongs of Spring’, Daily Telegraph, 3 August 1996, A3

1997

79Franziska Augstein, ‘Ich war ein russischer Jude’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19 July 1997, no page number

80Nicholas Dawidoff, June 1997, Athenaeum: ‘Shura and Shaya: An Afternoon with Sir Isaiah Berlin’, The American Scholar 67 no. 2 (1998), 101–4

81Enrico Palandri, Panta no. 15 (1997), 64–73

1998

82 Dabney, Lewis M., ‘The Philosopher and the Critic’, New York Times Book Review, 29 November 1998, 31, excerpts from ‘Isaiah Berlin on Edmund Wilson’, Wilson Quarterly 23 no. 1 (Winter 1999), 38–49 (photo by Arnold Newman)

2000

83Igor Shaitanov, ‘Russkoe intervyu Isaii Berlina’, Voprosy literatury, September–October 2000, 127–67 (discusses and reproduces in an improved text his 1998 interview)

2006

84Beata Polanowska-Sygulska, ‘ “Przypuscmy, ze telefon zamienia sie w kota ...”: o wolnosci, filozofii jezyka i o zyciu w komunizmie’ [‘Supposing a telephone changes into a cat ...’: on liberty, on philosophy of language and on life under Communism], Przeglad Polityczny no. 79/80 (2006), 113–19 (extracts from UD); repr. in ead., Rozmowy z oksfordzkimi filozofami [Conversations with Oxford Philosophers] (Krakow, 2011: Księgarnia Akademicka), 19–41

2009

85John Merson, ‘A Conversation with Isaiah Berlin [in 1974]’, ABC Radio National website

2013

86 Michael Ignatieff, extracts from interviews, in 2nd ed. of The Hedgehog and the Fox

Last updated 24 November 2024

The interviewer’s name is given first in each entry. A number of other items might be included: the line between interviews and conversations is not easy to draw.

The catalogue includes some broadcast items that were not subsequently published. These are  asterisked.