Many people helped me in different ways along the various stages of completing this book. It is a daunting and ultimately inadequate task to express my appreciation. This book is the culmination of research that I did for my doctoral degree in the History Department at Queen’s University, where supportive faculty and colleagues encouraged me in undertaking this project. I was especially fortunate to have Jeffrey McNairn as my supervisor. I owe my realization of turning inchoate research ideas into this book to his persistent encouragement and guidance.
Parts of the research for this book were funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship from the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History. I spent much of my time revising this manuscript when I was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge. I found a welcoming and stimulating home there in the Department of Politics and International Studies and in Clare Hall, where I was fortunate to discuss ideas for this book with fellow junior scholars from around the world. At Cambridge, I had the privilege of working with Duncan Bell, whose work inspired my interest in the history of international relations.
While working on this book, I had the pleasure of teaching remarkable students at Queen’s, the Royal Military College, and the University of Ottawa, and I gladly recognize that they made me think of history in ways that I had not expected. I am thankful for the seemingly innumerable conversations and exchanges with friends and colleagues over the years in the office, at conferences, and over drinks, which certainly shaped this project in tacit but meaningful ways. I am grateful to Elaine McCoy and Marc Gold for their encouragement and understanding in the final stages of preparing this book while working full time. I am deeply appreciative of the reviewers of the manuscript who provided detailed and constructive feedback. It has been a valuable experience to work with the University of Toronto Press and the team of professionals who have helped to bring this book to life.
Finally, my most profound acknowledgment is to my friends and family, and especially my parents. Their support made this book possible in so many ways, and I dedicate it to them with the fullest weight of love and appreciation.
Much has changed in the world since I began this book. It was written before Brexit, before Trump, before the global pandemic – before all of those things that seemed to have pulled the world into an unpredictable exercise of redefinition. I take some comfort in looking back now at the people I studied for this project, who grappled with anxieties about a world they thought was changing in significant ways. Even when everything seems to have suddenly changed, the hope for new answers to enduring questions always remains.