I would like to begin by thanking two people who read the complete manuscript carefully and thoughtfully and made extremely helpful suggestions for revisions. With uncommon attention and rigorous intelligence, Nathan Connolly and Jeff Kerr-Ritchie showed me where arguments could be more focused and where ideas could be more developed. I am indeed fortunate in having such conscientious and generous readers.
Of the people who have read parts of the manuscript, and who have provided me with key ideas, important references, and invaluable guidance along the way, I would like especially to thank Noreen O'Connor-Abel and Rochelle Gurstein, two expert and gifted readers who have made this book better for their commentary.
I would like to thank Laura Davulis at Yale University Press for her original interest in the manuscript, and for making this book possible. It has been a genuine pleasure working with her. I would also like to thank Jeffrey Schier for his intelligence and rigor in copyediting this book.
I, like every other author, could not do the work I do without the help and kindness of librarians. I have been particularly lucky in having some wonderful research librarians at the Olin Library at Wesleyan University, at the Sterling Library at Yale University, and at the National Humanities Center. In particular, I would like to thank Dianne Kelly and Erhard Konerding at Wesleyan for their gracious and considerate help throughout, and Katherine Wolfe for her dogged and successful pursuit of a critical text at just the moment I needed it.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate in having colleagues at Wesleyan who have been thoughtful and generous with their time and conversation. There are too many to name individually, but I would be remiss if I did not name Khachig Tölölyan, who has, over the course of twenty years, been a constant source of friendship and wisdom.
My family, extended all over the world, has made it possible for me to do the work I do in innumerable ways, large and small. My father and mother have been an endless source of support and love and encouragement. Everything I have done is a small tribute to their commitment, to their compassion, and to their example. I would like especially to thank my brother Amgad, who has been a role model and a devoted supporter for all my life; he has made more things possible than I can thank him for. My sisters Janice and Senait have been steadfast believers in me and my work, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. My niece Anna and my nephew Alex have watched me working on this book for most of their lives, and I am glad now to be less distracted during our family visits. In addition I would like to thank my aunts and uncles, especially Tante Nabila in Canada, Tante Ensuf and Amo Enayat in Egypt, and all of my Detroit family. My family in New Jersey, Nevolia Ogletree and Kassahun Checole, always asked me about my project and listened with genuine care when I was able to share, and showed incredible understanding when I wasn't. I am glad to present this to all of my family as a testament of their faith in me.
My sons, Zidane and Aziz, have lived with this book their entire lives without knowing it. I hope that when they are old enough to read it they realize why Poppy spent so much time reading and in front of the 'puter. During the writing of some of these chapters, they provided me with a much-needed reprieve; their joyous faces were always an antidote to the accounts I was reading of injustice and hatred. Many is the day when I happily turned from these accounts to relish the pleasure and joy they bring to every day, and to enjoy their infectious enthusiasm for all of life.
Finally, I end where I begin this book with my most profound and yet inexpressible gratitude to the person to whom it is dedicated—my wife, Kidan. She has been a constant and profound source of emotional and intellectual support in every way. She bore with loving patience the ebbs and flows of my writing; and, more importantly, she provided guidance and grounding and care. For all that she has done to allow me write this book, and for the much greater things she has done that have nothing to do with this book, I cherish her and dedicate this book to her.