My heartfelt thanks go first to an extraordinary group of dedicated people at the Ford Foundation. Barry Gaberman, Susan Berresford, Christopher Harris, and Alan Divack recognized in the early formulation of this book my ambition of telling philanthropy’s contribution to American democracy and helped turn the idea into reality. I am grateful also for the support I received from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The Hagley Museum and Library made it possible for me early in the research to spend a summer exploring the Pew Charitable Trusts’ records in the Soda House on the banks of the Brandywine.
At the University of Virginia, my long-time academic home, my colleagues on the committee that oversees the Bankard Fund for the Study of Political Economy have shown much confidence in this project and provided funds over several years. So has the Institute for Advanced Study in Culture, the haven for scholars that James Davison Hunter has so ably created.
Very talented students have taken an active role in this work. They have helped research and interpret the appropriate sources. I feel privileged to have worked so closely over the years with Andrew J. F. Morris, Derek Hoff, Christopher Loomis, Christopher Nichols, and Daniel Holt, while they were earning their doctorates in history at UVA. Jordan Berman and Brent Cebul also have aided the research.
At my second academic home, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, I have tried out every idea for this book during my annual presentations to the American history seminar run by Pap NDiaye, Cécile Vidal, and François Weil at the Centre d’Études Nord-Américaines.
Sustained exchanges with Kim Gould Ashizawa, Arnaldo Bagnasco, Dwight Burlingame, David Hammack, Steven Heydemann, Richard John, Stanley N. Katz, Ira Katznelson, James Loeffler, Eleanor W. Sacks, Holly Cowan Shulman, Nancy Summers, Francis X. Sutton, Thomas Troyer, Joshua Yates, and Philip Zelikow have improved the work dramatically. Julian Bond has shared with me family papers from the days his father Horace Mann Bond worked for the Rosenwald Fund. Flavio Brugnoli, Piero Gastaldi, and Mario Gioannini at the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin have followed this research with a sustained interest in the American experience.
At Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg not only recognized this book early on as one she wanted to publish, but also provided excellent advice on the manuscript. So have two anonymous readers for the Press. Eva Jaunzems has contributed her remarkable copyediting skills.
I owe a very special thanks to three long-time close friends. Nicolas Barreyre, Arthur Goldhammer, and Charlie Feigenoff have taken much of their valuable time to review my manuscript in minute detail and have encouraged me to reformulate my ideas as often as needed.
Christine, our children Emmanuel and Sophie, and our two splendid grandchildren Henry and Lila have shown much patience with me, each in their own way, as I have completed this work.
It is customary but also appropriate to add that deficiencies that remain are my own.
Olivier Zunz
Charlottesville, Virginia
Spring 2011