Rodney barker biography

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He changed my life—not only with his brilliant, inspirational teaching and amazingly imaginative, wide ranging, and beautifully written books—but also with his deep empathy and sensitivity.

Without his encouragement, I wouldn’t have started a PhD. Without his gentle, considerate way of introducing a callow working class lad from the north east of England to serious academic discourse and culture, I wouldn’t have completed it.

Nervous as hell, I went to the introductory session for the degree and cowered at the back of the room.

It all started with the boots.

It was September 1992, and I was down in London, fresh from the University of Birmingham, with a 12-month grant from the ESRC to do the MSc Politics in the LSE’s Department of Government.

And he loved the Christmastime fishing trips to Key Largo, Florida, fishing for mackerel and marlin with his grandfather.

“The Quakers were known for opening their homes to the less fortunate, with programs like the Fresh Air Fund for kids from the inner cities and a foreign exchange student from Brazil.

Indeed, for Rodney, ideas were the truly significant forces in polities and societies. He then turned to narrative non-fiction books. Then, Rodney worked as a freelancer writing investigative articles for regional and national magazines. As we exited the Photographers’ Gallery, the rain stopped and the sun came out. I mean, I did feel chosen, I was the right one to do it,” said Barker.

Barker’s background

Barker, who grew up in a Quaker family in Darien, Connecticut, states his website.

 Rodney Barker’s Books

• Education and Politics, 1900-1951: A Study of the Labour Party (Clarendon Press, 1972).

• Political Ideas in Modern Britain (Methuen, 1978).

• Political Legitimacy and the State (Clarendon Press, 1990).

• Politics, Peoples and Government: Themes in British Political Thought Since the Nineteenth Century (St Martin’s Press, 1994)

• Political Ideas in Modern Britain, Second Edition: In and After the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 1997).

• Legitimating Identities: The Self-presentation of Rulers and Subjects (Cambridge University Press, 2001)

• Making Enemies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

• Cultivating Political and Public Identity: Why Plumage Matters (Manchester University Press, 2017). 

As Editor

• Studies in Opposition (Macmillan, 1971).

• Political Ideas and Political Action (Blackwell, 2000; the book edition of a special issue of Political Studies Rodney edited).