Acknowledgments

This volume had its origins in a series of talks held in 2007–2008 at the Columbia University Seminar on Eighteenth-Century European Culture. Robert Belknap, director of the Columbia University Faculty Seminars, provided much initial enthusiasm for this series on the eighteenth-century intellectual background of modern free speech legislation, and I am deeply appreciative of the institutional and financial assistance the Columbia University Seminars was able to offer. The staff of the Seminars office—Alice Newton, Pamela Guardia, Gessy Alvarez, and Jonathan Bourdett—likewise offered tremendous assistance to me and to the contributors, several of whom traveled to New York from far afield.

Along with Bob Belknap, other individuals have been unstinting sources of advice and support in preparing the essays in this volume for publication. First and foremost among them is John Christian Laursen, who has been unsparing with inspiration and sage criticsm. I am grateful to my wonderful colleagues at the Eighteenth-Century Seminar, in particular to Randolph Trumbach. Daniel Carey brought Bucknell University Press and Greg Clingham to my attention, for which I am most grateful. Richard Sussman is well aware of how indebted I am to him.

I would also like to express my thanks to the New York Public Library, where I was fortunate to enjoy a yearlong residence in the Wertheim Room devoted to research for my own contributions to this volume. I could not have prepared this volume for publication were it not for the resources of the Information Technology division of the Graduate Center and University Center of the City University of New York.

Finally, my deepest thanks are due to the contributors, all of whom cheerfully suffered my persistent editorial badgering.