I wish to thank my editor, George Andreou, who brought focus and style to a scattered and awkward draft, and my agent, Tina Bennett, who does her job better than anyone I’ve met, and who intervened at important moments. Columbia Law School deans David Schizer and Gillian Lester provided enormous support for this work, as did my Columbia colleagues. Many of the ideas for this book were worked out in writings for The New Yorker, under Nick Thompson’s editing, and at The New Republic, where James Burnett was my editor. Scott Hemphill and Kathryn Tucker were generous early readers, Philip Bobbitt helped set a tone, and Onil Bhattacharyya provided guidance at the end. Other helpful readers were Derek Slater, Jonathan Knee, Michael Wolff, and James Williams. My extended family also helped steer the book, especially Barbara Burton and Charles Judge, and my mother who helpfully panned the (original) introduction. I also thank audiences at Oxford Internet Institute, Yale Law School, Cleveland-Marshall Law School, the New American foundation, and Columbia Law School, where I presented early drafts. I thank the Columbia Journalism School and Dean Steve Coll as well. Early work also benefited from the Derek Brewer fellowship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University.
I am grateful for help researching this book provided by Rebecca Shafer of the New America foundation, Chloe Nevitt of McGill, and at Columbia, Kathleen Farley, Tim Grey, Morgan Petkovich, Janice Lee, Erin Patricia Walsh, Greg Wolfe, Zoe Carpou, Patricia Haynes, Scott Yakaitis, Julia E. Murray, and Stephanie Wu. I am enormously grateful to the research librarians at Columbia Law School who hunted down some particularly obscure materials, especially related to Zenith and telepathy. Thanks also to Brenna McDuffie, Helen Tobin, Dani Toth, and other members of the Knopf publicity team. I am grateful to Jacqueline Gottlieb of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science who along with some of her students helped me better understand the science of attention.
I am most grateful to my loving wife and partner, Kate—an unfailingly enthusiastic supporter of this book who also put up with an awful lot along the way, including not just the usual obsessions but also a run for public office. And finally, to my dear daughter, Sierra, “without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book might have been finished in half the time.”