I hasten to acknowledge all those who made Unthinkable possible, beginning with my most discerning readers and soulful critics: my wife, Sarah; my daughters, Hannah and Tabitha; and my big sister, Erika. I love them boundlessly and have treasured their advice (even when they tried to edit their own descriptions and appearances in the book).
I was blessed to work with Matt Harper of HarperCollins (no relation, they say), a sharp-eyed and imaginative literary editor with a ruthless talent for cutting flab and a dazzling memory for text and the inner structure of the manuscript. Given my day job, this book was a labor of love through the nighttime and weekend hours, and Matt showed endless patience for my insomniac writing, texting, and calling habits. I will miss working with him. He is a gentleman.
My thanks to Lisa Sharkey, director of creative development at HarperCollins, who believed passionately in this book long before I wrote a single word of it. Thanks to the whole first-class team at HarperCollins: Jonathan Burnham, Tina Andreadis, Kate D’Esmond, and Rebecca Holland. I’d also like to thank my great and patient audio team: Louis Milgrom, William Lowe, Brian Jacobs, Beth Ebisch, and Chris Blood.
I had two meticulous and visionary research assistants in my friends, the dynamic duo of Norman and Kimberly Sandridge (“Sandridge Analytica,” as we came to call them), the former a professor of classics in the political science department at Howard University and the latter the director of early childhood education at the Evergreen School in Silver Spring and a fanatical grammarian.
Profuse thanks go to Zoie Lafis and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC, for giving me a sacred space within which to think and a solid table upon which to write. I am forever grateful.
Special thanks to Riki and Michael Sheehan, Susan and Gary Vogel, Tamara Weiss, Iya Labunka, and John and April Delaney, all of whom provided me at different points in this journey a beautiful refuge and workspace for the writing of my book.
Profound thanks to Lucy Kaplansky, James Montfort, Cheryl Whitman, Lucia Mondesir, Lauren Doney, Donna D’Amico, Nils and Amy Lofgren, Suzanne Berne, Laura Franco, Tom Cove, Whitney Ellenby, Kevin Barr, Julia Sweig, Reed Thompson, and Debra Winger for helping me (in ways big and small that may be known or unknown to them).
And final thanks to the magnificent people of Maryland’s Eighth District who have always had my back and always helped me to write the story of our times.