Acknowledgments
THE IDEA FOR THIS BOOK arose in a conversation between Bob Strom and Will Baumol when the former accepted an invitation to teach a course in entrepreneurship. As we discussed material for the course and approaches that would place the topic in historical context, the idea for this book emerged.
As neither of us is a historian, the need for help was clear. We were determined to seek editors who were second to none, and our thoughts turned first to David Landes and Joel Mokyr. It seemed miraculous that both scholars accepted our invitation immediately. They thoughtfully assembled an outline for the volume, and Joel compiled a list of promising contributors. Once again, we were delighted to find that most of the authors quickly accepted the invitations and were enthusiastic about this project.
In order to ensure that the volume was not a mere collection of miscellaneous papers with little relation to each other, we, the editors, set out a list of topics that the authors would be asked to address—with some degree of flexibility, of course. At an authors' conference at New York University in October 2006, drafts of the chapters were discussed both in terms of their substance and their coherence to this list of topics. With another year of revision and editing, we hope that what has emerged is indeed a volume that is illuminating, readable and cohesive.
Though it sometimes entailed hard work, the task has been a great pleasure, and the enhanced friendship with our two editors has been a rich reward. In addition to what is owed to their efforts, we must also recognize the invaluable contribution of Alyse Freilich, who read the manuscripts closely, edited them with care and understanding, and finally shepherded them to the publisher. She stepped in to rescue us after the very sad passing of Sue Anne Blackman, our beloved colleague of many years, who had been expected to oversee the preparation of this volume. She and Janeece Lewis, Baumol's very capable associate at NYU, deserve much of the credit for the final emergence of the volume.
We must also express our gratitude to our colleagues at Princeton University Press, with whom we have worked before, so that their helpful contribution came as no surprise. Finally, we must acknowledge our tremendous debt to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, not only for its very encouraging support of this volume, but perhaps even more for giving it one of the inaugural positions in the Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
WILLIAM J. BAUMOL AND ROBERT J. STROM