Tracy Burr Strong was born August 6, 1943 in Weihsien, Shantung, China, the son of Robbins Strong (1912-1999) and Katherine Stiven (1917-1999). He attended high school in Switzerland and earned his BA in Government from Oberlin College, which is also the alma mater of his great aunt, Anna Louise Strong. He earned both his MA and PhD from Harvard University.

In 1983, he published the book with his wife, Helene Keyssar, which discussed Anna Louise's life and background, as well as her involvement with China and the Soviet Union from the First World War to the Cultural Revolution. As her great nephew, Strong collected a lot of archival material on Anna Louise, and was also able to draw on his family lore to supplement his research.

He is currently a Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests beyond his family history include political theory and related fields in political science, aesthetics, literature, and more. He is the author of several more books, including , along with other books that he has edited or co-edited. He is currently working on a book of music, language, and politics in the period from Rousseau to Nietzsche. He has been the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation, has been Visiting Professor at the Juan March Instituto in Spain and Warwick University in England, and was a Fellow at the Center for Human Values, Princeton University (2002-03). From 1990 until 2000 he was Editor of Political Theory.