For their kindness in reading over one or another version of the manuscript of this memoir and giving me the benefit of their encouragement and advice, I am much indebted to my daughter, Deirdre Oakley, and to my friends and colleagues at Williams—John Chandler, Dusty Griffin, Kenda Mutongi, and Dan O’Connor. Similarly to the fellows of the Oakley Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Williams, with whose weekly seminar I ventured to share a couple of chapters, and to Krista Birch, administrative director of the Oakley Center, for her generosity in extending a helping hand to one who, like the butler in Downton Abbey, did not quite come to terms with the telephone until his adult years and who still finds it a bit of a challenge to navigate the highways and byways of Computerland. To all of them I am most grateful, as also for the encouragement extended to me by the readers for the University of Notre Dame Press. Commonweal magazine gave me permission to incorporate in the chapter “Trajectories of Fear” material that first appeared under the title “Luftwaffe over Liverpool” in Commonweal 143, no. 2 (January 29, 2016). For permission to reproduce photographs they had taken, I am also indebted to Patrick Meyer Higgins, Charles Fuqua, and Leslie Reed Evans. And here, of course, I would be remiss if I did not once more, as with so many of my previous books, pay tribute to Donna Chenail for her fine work in preparing the manuscript for press. It has been, over the years, a great pleasure to work with her.
Williamstown, Massachusetts, January 2017 F.C.O.