Man's Right to Knowledge was a radio program that ran from January 3, 1954 to December 26, 1954 on CBS. Created by Columbia University on the occasion of its bicentennial, the show consisted of two weekly lecture series, each episode featuring a different prominent academic or world leader. The university's president, Grayson L. Kirk, hosted the series. The content of each lecture centered around the university's bicentennial theme, "Man's Right to Knowledge and the Free Use Thereof". The first series, titled Man's Right to Knowledge: Tradition and Change, ran for thirteen weeks beginning on January 3. The second, titled Man's Right to Knowledge: Present Knowledge and Future Directions, ran for another thirteen weeks beginning on October 3. The final lecture, delivered by J. Robert Oppenheimer in his first public appearance since the end of his security hearings earlier that year, marked the official end of the Bicentennial.
The show was wildly successful—within three months of the show's debut, the university had already received 10,000 requests for reprints of the talks; its episodes were eventually transcribed and published in two volumes. By September 1954, the book version of the first series had sold over 22,000 copies. The series was translated and rebroadcast across the world, and won a 1954 Peabody Award for its "unprecedented impact", and the way it "stimulated a crusade for free inquiry and free expression—and helped to give to millions of individuals a deeper understanding of their rights to knowledge."
Episodes
Man's Right to Knowledge: Tradition and Change +LecturerSubtopicTitleOriginal air date1Arnold J. Toynbee"The Idea of Man""The Ancient Mediterranean View of Man"January 3, 19542Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan"The Ancient Asian View of Man"January 10, 19543William F. Albright"The Judeo-Christian View of Man"January 17, 19544Joseph Wood Krutch"The Modern View of Man"January 24, 19545William Linn Westermann"The Idea of Society""Authority and Freedom in the Ancient Mediterranean World"January 31, 19546Hu Shih"Authority and Freedom in the Ancient Asian World"February 7, 19547Martin D'Arcy"Authority and Freedom in Medieval Europe"February 14, 19548Robert Morrison MacIver"Authority and Freedom in the Modern World"February 21, 19549George Sarton"The Idea of the Universe""The Old World and the New Humanism"February 28, 195410Swami Nikhilananda"The Universe as Pure Being"March 7, 195411François Louis Ganshof"Knowledge and Faith in Medieval Europe"March 14, 195412Homi J. Bhabha"Inquiry and Reason Today"March 21, 195413Grayson L. Kirk"The Idea of the University""The Idea of the University"March 28, 1954
Man's Right to Knowledge: Present Knowledge and Future Directions +LecturerSubtopicTitleOriginal air date1Howard P. Robertson"The Nature of Things""The Nature of the Universe"October 3, 19542Wolfgang Pauli"The Nature of Matter"October 10, 19543Hermann Joseph Muller"The Nature of Life"October 17, 19544Henry Murray"Versions of Man"October 24, 19545John Lord O'Brian"Human Organization""Law and Freedom"October 31, 19546Jean Monnet"Use of Resources"November 7, 1954Eli Ginzberg"Human Potential"7Brock Chisholm"Physical Well-Being"November 14, 19548Hans Speier"War and Peace"November 21, 19549Paul Tillich"The Human Spirit""Religion as an Aspect of the Human Spirit"November 28, 195410William George Constable"Visual Arts as an Aspect of the Human Spirit"December 5, 195411Herbert Read"Literature as an Aspect of the Human Spirit"December 12, 195412Aaron Copland"Music as an Aspect of the Human Spirit"December 19, 195413J. Robert Oppenheimer"Prospects in the Arts and Sciences""Prospects in the Arts and Sciences"December 26, 1954
See also Ernest Kempton Adams Lectures Bampton Lectures (Columbia University)
References