Background
Coker was born in Society Hill, South Carolina.
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Francis Coker
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In 1910, he received his Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University, and began teaching at Ohio State University, where he remained until 1929.
Career
Coker"s work focused on political theory, particularly theories of the state and the nature of democracy. He received an Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina in 1899 and a second Bachelor of Arts from Harvard in 1902. In 1916, Coker married Helene Ruth Patton with whom he had two children, including Francis William Coker, Junior., who later became a noted lawyer
In 1929, Coker left Ohio State to become the Cowles Professor of Government at Yale.
In 1937, he was appointed chairman of the government department at Yale, and held that position until his retirement in 1945. In 1947, he was named an emeritus professor at Yale, and he retired in 1949.
Coker died on May 26, 1963 at his home in Hamden, Connecticut and was buried in his hometown of Society Hill. Coker published his first book, Organismic Theories of the State in 1910.
In the work, Coker criticized contemporary theories of the state as a unitary actor, and argued that "such theories ultimately failed." The book drew a somewhat frosty response, and L.L. Bernard wrote in the American Journal of Sociology that Coker "missed the point".
Nonetheless, the book gained a following and is still cited today. Coker"s other major theoretical work was Recent Political Thought published in 1934. The book examined the development of political ideas from the mid-nineteenth century until the early 1930s.
The book primarily focused on liberal democracy and both leftist and rightist challenges to lieutenant
Coker also edited several works on political theory, which became "standard anthologies in political theory courses," and wrote numerous articles in journals and other publications. The central themes in all of his work were theories of the state, and the nature of liberal democracy.
Politics
Without firmly taking a position on democracy in the book, Coker did conclude that liberal democracy "was a more reasonable political alternative than critics on either side of the political spectrum appreciate." Recent Political Thought was generally well received and one reviewer in the American Journal of International Law called the work "a service to all teachers of political theory". Similarly, Francis Wilson, writing in the American Political Science Review called the book "the best of the works on current political thinking.".
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Born
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Died
March 26, 1963 (aged 84) -
Nationality
United States