Peter J Ling

Peter J. Ling is Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham where he taught both US political history, including the evolving presidency, and African American history for thirty years. He is the author of The Democratic Party: A Photographic History (2003) and two acclaimed biographies John F. Kennedy (2013) and Martin Luther King (2015) as well as many articles, reflecting his diverse interests, in both scholarly refereed journals and in popular magazines such as History Today and BBC World History, several of which have been anthologized on topics as diverse as Thomas Jefferson and the Environment and the impact of the car on courtship. He has also published a widely cited co-edited collection Gender and the Civil Rights Movement (2014) with his then Nottingham colleague Sharon Monteith and more recently Martin Luther King: A Reference Guide (2023) with David Deverick. He has been a consultant and contributor on television and radio, both in the UK and abroad, held guest lectureships at US universities such as Emory in Atlanta, and has lectured and taught across the world from North America and Europe to China and Malaysia. His writing can also be followed on the internet platform Medium.