I WOULD LIKE to thank Anita Shapira and Steve Zipperstein, the editors of this series, who commissioned the book and whose comments made it better than it would otherwise have been. I owe a double debt to Todd Endelman. His scholarship paves the way for anyone interested in Disraeli’s Jewishness and his Anglo-Jewish milieu, but he also read the manuscript and made numerous valuable observations. I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to the staff of the London Library and to all those who keep that remarkable institution in rude health. At a time when university libraries have become “information centres,” when even the British Library (where Isaac D’Israeli spent much of his time) resembles a glorified internet café, the London Library stands out as a haven for scholarship and contemplation. At that institution, which was founded during Disraeli’s lifetime and is associated with many who knew him, I found it possible to locate on its shelves almost everything necessary for my research, while the building, like Hughendon Manor, exudes an aura that helps one connect with the world he knew. I would also like to thank Ileene Smith and Erica Hanson at Yale University Press and Lawrence Kenney for his excellent editorial work on the manuscript.