Includes bibliographical references (pages [623]-645) and index.

Contents
Front Matter
Copyright Page
Dedication
List of Figures
ExpandBibliographic Abbreviations
Military Names and Abbreviations
Notes on the Text
Epigraph
Introduction
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Part I Pre-War
M. W. Rowe
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Expand1 Origins: c.1670–1911
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Expand2 Childhood: 1911–1924
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Expand3 Shrewsbury: 1924–1929
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Expand4 Balliol: 1929–1933
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Expand5 Philosophy in Oxford: 1918–1933
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Expand6 All Souls: 1933–1935
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Expand7 Collingwood, C. I. Lewis, and Aristotle: 1935–1938
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Expand8 The All Souls Group, Politics, and Wittgenstein: 1937–1940
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Part II War
M. W. Rowe
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Expand9 Jean and the Army: September 1939–December 1940
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Expand10 MI14, Marriage, and North African Intelligence: December 1940–April 1941
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Expand11 Injury, Scotland, and the Desert War: April 1941–March 1942
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Expand12 The Coming of the Martians: March–July 1942
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Expand13 Norfolk House, Dieppe, and Torch: June–November 1942
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Expand14 Skyscraper, Invade Mecum, and Exile: November 1942–July 1943
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Expand15 The Hunt for the V-Weapons: April 1943–February 1944
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Expand16 At Peter Robinson’s: November 1943–January 1944
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Expand17 Towards D-Day: December 1943–June 1944
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Expand18 D-Day and the Battle of Normandy: May–September 1944
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Expand19 Arnhem and the Ardennes: September 1944–January 1945
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Expand20 War’s End: February–November 1945
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Part III Post-War
M. W. Rowe
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Expand21 The Post-War Scene: 1945–1955
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Expand22 ‘Other Minds’ and Ordinary Language: 1946–1948
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Expand23 Ordinary Language Philosophy: 1947–1959
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Expand24 The Oral and the Written: 1947–1959
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Expand25 Sense and Sensibilia: 1947–1959
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Expand26 Truth and Logic: 1950–1952
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Expand27 White’s Professor: 1952–1954
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Expand28 Domestic Life and the Americans: 1952–1954
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Expand29 Harvard and Speech-Acts: 1955
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Expand30 Abilities and Excuses: 1956–1957I
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Expand31 Royaumont and Anscombe: 1958
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Expand32 California, Semantics, and Sound Symbolism: 1958–1959
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Expand33 Ayer, Scandinavia, and the Gellner Controversy: 1959
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Expand34 Final Illness: 1959–1960
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End Matter
ExpandAcknowledgements
Bibliography
Index

Abstract
This is the first full-length biography of John Langshaw Austin (1911–60). The opening four chapters outline his origins, childhood, schooling, and time as an undergraduate, while the next four examine his early career in professional philosophy, looking at the influence of Oxford Realism, Logical Positivism, Pragmatism, and the later Wittgenstein. The central twelve chapters then explore Austin’s wartime career in British Intelligence. The first three examine the contributions he made to the campaigns in North Africa; the next seven the seminal role he played in ensuring the outstanding accuracy of the D-Day Intelligence; while the final two explore his contributions to Arnhem, the Ardennes, and the post-war administration of Germany. The last main section of the book then outlines and assesses Austin’s contributions to post-war Oxford Ordinary Language Philosophy. The first three chapters discuss the impact on Oxford philosophy of the cultural atmosphere of post-war Britain and the later Wittgenstein’s ideas. The next four look at Austin’s influence on post-war Oxford, particularly his Saturday morning discussion group and his perception lectures. The next five chapters concentrate on America’s influence on Austin and vice versa, paying particular attention to Austin’s work on speech-acts and his semesters in Harvard and Berkeley. The final two chapters examine Austin’s declining influence in Oxford, and his tragically premature death.