On Liberty

On Liberty

From In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

February 12, 2026 · 49 min

About this episode

Misha Glenny discusses John Stuart Mill's work On Liberty and its implications for civil liberty with expert guests.

Journalist, author and historian Misha Glenny presents his first edition of In Our Time, succeeding Melvyn Bragg who retired from this role last summer. Misha and his guests discuss the landmark work On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, published in 1859 and the increasing recognition for his wife Harriet Taylor Mill's contribution. The subject matter of the essay is ‘civil or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual’ and it argues that the sole end for which mankind may interfere with the liberty of action of anyone is self-protection and even then only to prevent harm to others. This essay became enormously popular and a foundational text for liberalism. With Helen McCabe Professor of Political Theory at the University of Nottingham Mark Philp Emeritus Professor of History and Politics at the University of Warwick And Piers Norris Turner Associate Professor of Philosophy at The Ohio State University Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Jo Ellen Jacobs (ed.), Harriet Taylor Mill, Complete Works (Indiana University Press, 1998) Bruce L. Kinzer, Ann P. Robson and John M. Robson, A Moralist In and Out of…

People in this episode

Host: Misha Glenny

Guests: Mark Philp, Piers Norris Turner

Topics covered

  • liberty
  • political theory
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Harriet Taylor Mill
  • civil liberty
  • liberalism

Keywords

  • On Liberty
  • John Stuart Mill
  • Harriet Taylor Mill
  • civil liberty
  • political theory
  • liberalism
  • Misha Glenny

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Nottingham, University of Warwick, The Ohio State University, BBC Radio 4

More episodes of In Our Time: Culture

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the In Our Time: Culture podcast page.