Life and Times of Bertrand Russell

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Program
Life and Times of Bertrand Russell
Producing Organization
British Broadcasting Corporation
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/516-mk6542kc5w
NOLA Code
LTBR
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Description
Program Description
1 hour program, produced in 1965 by BBC, originally shot on videotape.
Program Description
Few men of the 20th century have lived such full, rich lives themselves and contributed so much to the intellectual and social community as the subject of this outstanding television profile. Now 93, Bertrand Russell is acknowledged to be one of our greatest philosophers, mathematicians and champions of individual liberty. Here, his rich character and remarkable personality are captured sharply in a program drawn from his own writings, from the frank comments of distinguished Britons interviewed for the program, and ? most impressively of all ? from his own spoken words during a candid and revealing television conversation. ?Bertrand Russell? was prepared originally by BBC-TV for showing on May 19, 1964, the day after Russell?s 92nd birthday, and it drew wide acclaim from British reviewers, who were struck especially by the urbane lucidity and impressive bearing of one so advanced in years. Though a mathematician and philosopher by profession, Bertrand Arthur William Russell was an aristocrat by birth. He was born in 1872 and was orphaned at the age of three by the death of his father, lord Amberley, and his mother. In 1890 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where, as he recalls in the interview, he finally found people he could talk to about the things that mattered to him. In 1895 he became a fellow of Trinity College and began teaching there. His reputation was founded on ?Principia Mathematica,? which he wrote in those early years with his colleague, Alfred North Whitehead. In the years to come, some 100 books and an equal number of articles followed, and eventually won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. But prizes were not the only reward for this outspoken individualist. For pacifist articles during World War I, he was first fined 100 pounds and then sentenced to six months in prison. And near World War II, his appointment to teach philosophy at a school in New York City was quashed for similar reasons. His political and social beliefs led him early in the century to socialism and to an eventual meeting with Lenin. Typically, he made up his own mind about Lenin and was not impressed. Russell still has a cynical view about man?s foolishness (?Since Adam and Eve, man has never reframed from any folly of which he was capable?), but he balances it with an appreciation of man?s capacity for art, literature, and music, a capacity Russell believes makes it imperative to preserve the human race. He justifies his civil disobedience in the cause of peace and individual freedom on the grounds that the great public figures of the world are helpless because of their prominence ? and, he feels, someone has to fight with non-violent means for an end to war. ?Shall we choose death because we can not forget our quarrels?? he asks. His social and humanitarian works are the ones he considers most important. If the preservation of mankind is not achieved he feels then all Russell?s other endeavors will have been in vain. The interview with Russell is conducted at his country home outside London. Also interviewed for the program are such prominent Britishers as Sir Julian Huxley, the author; Michael Foot, political columnist and member of the British Labor Party; and philosopher Alfred J. Ayers. ?Bertrand Russell?: a 1965-66 presentation of National educational Television, produced by BBC-TV. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Broadcast Date
1965-12-13
Asset type
Program
Genres
Documentary
Topics
Biography
Media type
Moving Image
Credits
Interviewee: Russell, Bertrand
Interviewee: Huxley, Julian
Interviewee: Foot, Michael
Interviewee: Ayers, Alfred J.
Narrator: Hobbs, Carleton
Producer: Brown, Malcolm
Producing Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation
Writer: Bolt, Robert
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 1 inch videotape: SMPTE Type C
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:58:30
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:58:30
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Copy: Access
Duration: 0:58:30
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-5 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-6 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-8 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-9 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-4 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828368-7 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828372-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:05:00
Library of Congress
Identifier: 828372-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:05:00
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Citations
Chicago: “Life and Times of Bertrand Russell,” 1965-12-13, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 30, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-mk6542kc5w.
MLA: “Life and Times of Bertrand Russell.” 1965-12-13. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. June 30, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-mk6542kc5w>.
APA: Life and Times of Bertrand Russell. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-mk6542kc5w