Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf was born in Germany in 1929. He studied philosophy, classical philology and sociology at Hamburg University between 1947 and 1952. He completed his doctorate in sociology at the London School of Economics in 1954 and then held a succession of Chairs in Sociology, including in Germany at universities in Hamburg, Tübingen and Konstanz.
From 1974 to 1984, Dahrendorf was director of the London School of Economics. He returned to Germany to become Professor of Social Science at Konstanz University from 1984 to 1986.
Dahrendorf also served as a Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Foreign Office of Germany, European Commissioner for Trade, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Education and as a Member of the British House of Lords, after which he was created a life peer in 1993.
Dahrendorf delivered two Beatty lectures in March 1981 on the theme of "A Swing to the Right?" including "Socio-political Changes in the Western World" and "The European Community at the Beginning of the 1980s".
Download a transcript of Ralf Dahrendorf's first lecture
here, and second lecture here.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Audio: McGill University Archives
Transcript: McGill University Archives
Image: London School of Economics Library, Archives and Special Collections
