1冊で3度おいしい楽しみ方

昨日、本屋で以下の本が平積みになっていました。9月に発売された本のようですが、「リースレクチャー」という部分に反応してしまいました。

劣化国家 (2013/09/20) ニーアル ファーガソン 商品詳細を見る

イギリス公共放送ＢＢＣが年に１人、当代最高の識者を招聘しオンエアする
「リースレクチャー」を書籍化。

いま最もすぐれた知性と目されるハーバード大歴史学教授が示す
「先進国の未来像」。

なぜ豊かな国が貧困へと逆戻りするのか？　

アダム・スミスの『国富論』やダグラス・ノースの制度論からひらめきを得て、
本書は書かれた。バーナード・マンデヴィル、エドマンド・バークから、
ジャレド・ダイアモンド、ポール・クルーグマン、ナシーム・タレブに至るまで、
新旧の知識人たちの主張を自在に参照しながら、「西洋の衰退」の本質に迫る。

前のブログでサイードのリースレクチャーを紹介しましたが、この講座の素晴らしいところは音声とトランスクリプトを公開してくれているところ、書籍化するにおいて、変えている部分もあるかもしれませんが、大筋に変更はないでしょう。

（1回目）
The Human Hive
Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012 Episode 1 of 4
Duration: 42 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 19 June 2012

トランスクリプト

The eminent economic historian Professor Niall Ferguson argues that institutions determine the success or failure of nations. In a lecture delivered at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he says that a society governed by abstract, impersonal rules will become richer than one ruled by personal relationships. The rule of law is crucial to the creation of a modern economy and its early adoption is the reason why Western nations grew so powerful in the modern age.

But are the institutions of the West now degenerating? Professor Ferguson asks whether the democratic system has a fatal flaw at its heart. In the West young people are confronting the fact that they must live with the huge financial debt generated by their parents, something they had no control over despite the fact that they were born into a democracy. Is there a way of restoring the compact between different generations?

（2回目）
The Darwinian Economy
Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012 Episode 2 of 4
Duration: 42 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 26 June 2012

トランスクリプト

The eminent economic historian Niall Ferguson travels to the world's financial centre to deliver a lecture at the New-York Historical Society. He reflects on the causes of the global financial crisis, and argues that many people have drawn erroneous conclusions from it about the role of regulation. Is regulation, he asks, in fact "the disease of which it purports to be the cure"?

（3回目）
The Landscape of the Law
Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012 Episode 3 of 4
Duration: 42 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 03 July 2012

トランスクリプト

The historian Niall Ferguson delivers a lecture at Gresham College in the heart of legal London, addressing the relationship between the nature of law and economic success. He examines the rule of law in comparative terms, asking how far the common law's claims to superiority over other systems are credible. Are we living through a time of creeping legal degeneration in the English-speaking world?

（4回目）
Civil and Uncivil Societies
Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012 Episode 4 of 4
Duration: 58 minutes
First broadcast: Tuesday 10 July 2012

トランスクリプト

The historian Niall Ferguson examines institutions outside the political, economic and legal realms, whose primary purpose is to preserve and transmit particular knowledge and values. In a lecture delivered at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he asks if the modern state is quietly killing civil society in the Western world? And what can non-Western societies do to build a vibrant civil society?

英語学習者にとって1時間続けて英語の講座を聞くのは大変かもしれませんが、国連英検を受験するような方には挑戦しがいがあるかもしれません。分からないところがあれば翻訳本を読めばいいのですから。