M. Crawford Young is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin where he has been on the faculty since 1963. One of the world’s foremost Africanists, Young has authored and edited a number of award-winning books and articles on Africa, including The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective (l994); The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State (with Thomas Turner, 1985); and Ideology and Development in Africa (1982). Young received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1953 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964. During the mid-1960s he was Visiting Professor, African Studies, Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, and from 1973 to 1975 he served as Dean, Faculty of Social Science, at the Université Nationale du Zaire. In 1987-8, he was Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal). The recipient of numerous prizes and awards, Crawford was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998, and was President of the African Studies Association in 1983.

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