David Boucher is Professor in Political Philosophy and International Relations, Cardiff University, and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Johannesburg. He is also Vice President of the Learned Society of Wales. His most recent books are The Limits of Ethics in International Relations (Oxford University Press, 2009) and British Idealism: A Guide for the Perplexed (with Andrew Vincent, Continuum, 2011).

Teresa Smith is R. G. Collingwood's daughter by his second wife, Kate Collingwood. From the late 1960s she worked as a university lecturer in the Department of Social and Administrative Studies at Oxford, and was head of the Oxford Department of Social Policy and Social Work for ten years and fellow of St Hilda's College. She advised the House of Commons Select Committee for Education on early education during the Labour administration. Her publications include 'From educational priority areas to area-based interventions: community, neighbourhood and preschool', in Edwards, R ed. Researching families and communities: social and generational change (Routledge, 2008); 'Whatever happened to EPAs? Part 2: Educational Priority Areas forty years on', Forum, (2007, with Smith G, and Smith, Tom); and Smith, T. et al. The Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative National Evaluation: Final Integrated Report. London: Sure Start / DfES; Smith GAN and Smith T. (2006).

• Notes on Contributors


• Acknowledgements


• Abbreviations


• Introduction: The Biography of An Autobiography


• PART I: R. G. Collingwood, An Autobiography


• Commentaries


• 1: Teresa Smith: Collingwood's Childhood: Habits of Thought


• 2: James Patrick: The Oxford Man


• 3: Michael Beaney: Collingwood's Critique of Oxbridge Realism


• 4: Tony Birley: Collingwood as Archaeologist and Historian


• 5: Jan van der Dussen: Collingwood's Philosophy of History in the Year of his Autobiography


• 6: Bruce Haddock: The Historicity of Thought


• 7: Rex Martin: From Method to Metaphysics


• 8: David Boucher: Collingwood and European Liberalism


• 9: James Connelly: Collingwood Controversies


• 10: Philip Smallwood: The Autobiography as Literature


• PART II: R. G. Collingwood, Log of a Journey in the East Indies, 1938-1939


• Commentary


• A Philosopher's Journey: Collingwood's voyage to the East Indies 1938-39, and its relation to An Autobiography and other writings


• R. G. Collingwood, A letter from Bali to his sister Barbara Gnosspelius, 23 December 1938