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A blue book cover with a white hexagon and black circle at the top of the page. From the middle of the circle a yellow spotlight extends to the bottom of the book, with the title and author in black letters inside the yellow space

Russell Blackford

Russell Blackford is a philosopher and the author of numerous books. His latest is How We Became Post-Liberal: The Rise and Fall of Toleration.

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A man with short white hair and black glasses, wearing a grey blazer and smiling

Russell Blackford

Russell Blackford is a philosopher, literary critic, and widely published author. He is currently Deputy Editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine and has an honorary appointment at the University of Newcastle as Conjoint Senior Lecturer in Philosophy.

Russell grew up in Newcastle, attending Belmont High School and completing degrees at the University of Newcastle, but then lived in Melbourne for 30 years, where he undertook further study at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. He returned to Newcastle in 2009. He holds first-class honours degrees in Arts and Law, and separate doctorates in English and philosophy.

He has enjoyed a distinguished career in academia, public policy management, and the legal profession. Since the early 1980s, he has also built a career as a writer and editor. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as book chapters, articles, op-eds, short stories, and book reviews. His recent books include The Tyranny of Opinion: Conformity and the Future of Liberalism and (most recently) How We Became Post-Liberal: The Rise and Fall of Toleration, both published by Bloomsbury.

For his contributions to humanist thought, Russell was inducted in 2014 into the International Academy of Humanism.

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