Place of birth: Albany, Georgia

Parentage: son of Clennon King and Margaret King

Family: married 1st Murreil Hazel Stern (divorced); one son, one daughter; married 2nd Raewyn; one son

Education: Oberlin College 1955; Atlanta University 1955; BA (Magna cum laude), History, Languages and Philosophy, Fisk University 1956; German language study, University of Vienna 1956, 1958; French literature, University of Strasbourg 1956, University of the Sorbonne, Paris 1957; MSc (Econ.), London School of Economics (LSE) 1960; PhD, LSE 1966

Career: Preston King is Scholar-in-Residence at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia where he was Distinguished Professor of Political Philosophy from 2002–05. He was also Woodruff Professor of Political Philosophy at Emory University during the same period. He began his career as a tutor at the London School of Economics in 1958. Then in 1960 he embarked on a three-month lecture tour on African liberation movements to ten US universities. In the summer of 1961 he was appointed Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Maryland, followed by an appointment at University of Keele, UK as Lecturer in Social & Political Philosophy from 1961–62. Following that he was Lecturer in Government at the University of Ghana from 1963–66, then at the University of Sheffield, UK as Lecturer in Political Theory and Institutions form 1966–68, and later as Reader in Government at the University of East Africa, Nairobi from 1968–70. He then became Deputy Director of Study of Toleration Project and Senior Research Fellow at the Acton Society Trust in London, commissioned to write a fundamental study of toleration from 1970–72. He subsequently held posts as Professor at the University of Nairobi from 1972–76, where he was also Chairman of the Department from 1972–74, set up and organized the Diplomacy Training Programme for anglophone Africa from 1972–73, and was Foundation Director of DTP from 1973–74, as Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia from 1976–86, where he was Head of School from 1978–81, and as Professor at the University of Lancaster, UK from 1986–2001, where he is now Professor Emeritus. Preston King is founding co-editor of the journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (see url below).

Honours and awards: Honorary Professor of Philosophy, University of East Anglia 2002; Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (Fisk University) 1999; Leverhulme Award, LSE 1958

Publications include: author: Fear of Power: A Comparative Analysis of Tocqueville, Proudhon & Sorel 1967, The Ideology of Order: A Comparative Analysis of Jean Bodin & Thomas Hobbes 1974 (new edition 1999), Toleration: A Fundamental Reassessment, First Since Bayle (17thc.) & Mill (19thc.) 1976 (new edition 1998), Federalism and Federation: An Exercise in Comparative Government 1982, An African Winter: Analysis of African Famine Crisis 1986, Thinking Past a Problem: Essays on the History of Ideas 1999; edited books: Politics and Experience: Essays Presented to Michael Oakeshott on the Occasion of His Retirement (co-editor) 1968, The Study of Politics 1977, The History of Ideas: An Introduction to Method 1982, A Constitution for Europe: A Comparative Study of Federal Constitutions and Plans for the United States of Europe (co-editor) 1991, Trusting in Reason: Martin Hollis & the Philosophy of Social Action 1993, Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments (four vols) 1993: Vol. 1. Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments. Texts & Contexts, Vol. 2. Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments. Ethics, Vol. 3. Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments. Politics & Law, Vol. 4. Thomas Hobbes: Critical Assessments. Religion, Socialism and the Common Good: New Fabian Essays 1996, The Challenge to Friendship in Modernity (co-editor) 2000; numerous articles in professional journals

Contact details: Address: The Leadership Center, Morehouse College, 830 Westview Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30314, USA; Tel: +1 404-614-8565; Fax: +1 404-614-8569; Email: pking@morehouse.edu ; Website: http://www.prestonking.net/ ; Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13698230.asp/ .