I would like to thank a whole army of people who have listened to me opine (read: whine) about my thoughts about this book for years now! In particular, thank you to the early readers of chapter 1: Kathy Arnold, Chris Wilson, Jess Melton, Sarah Barfels, Amber Schabdach, Julia Murphy, Nicole Walbrun, and Laurie Kim. I also thank the anonymous reviewers who were very enthusiastic about the concept when it wasn’t much more than a concept. All of these early insights inspired me to keep going and helped me to hone the early draft in some important ways.
Laura Holliday and T. Berkeley Goodloe at the Academic Writers Studio were incredibly helpful in the creation of this project. Laura was an insanely patient and diligent editor and thought-provoker when I was stuck and despondent. (OK, that’s a little dramatic but you get the idea.) I am truly indebted to her for her help in organizing and cleaning up every nook and cranny of the book and making it a far more coherent and polished final product than it ever would have been on my own.
I also thank Logan U’u for enduring overly complicated and convoluted ramblings about my thoughts and then adding some really thought-provoking and smart insights that helped the book in ways big and small.
While all errors herein remain my own, the project was significantly improved by the many people who helped me develop it along the way.
I am very grateful to my editor, Angela Chnapko, for her enthusiastic support of the project from start to finish. She gave me the leeway to pursue the book when it was little more than a rough sketch and I could not ask for a more supportive and encouraging editor. My thanks as well to the many other people at Oxford University Press who helped to polish and to complete the draft manuscript, especially Alexcee Bechthold and Melissa Yanuzzi.
I dedicate this book to my husband Shawn Harrison, for his unwavering love and support through years of highs and lows, and for helping me focus on the former rather than the latter. He also had to hear me plan and replan and then plan again . . . only to undo the plan and start a new plan . . . for pretty much every chapter of the book. How he remained sane is anyone’s guess. My dedication also goes to our kids Joshua and Vivian for their patience with Daddy as he was he was often preoccupied and frazzled. I hope it will have been worth it.
Despite its inevitable flaws and shortcomings, I hope this book helps to (re)orient our collective thought processes about how we talk about politics and important issues of the day. The issues we face as a nation are too sober and serious for us to allow ourselves to be distracted by unnecessary, petty squabbling. Disagreement need not lead to bickering and brawls; we are capable of being better stewards of deliberative democracy.
Cover design is by Kostis Pavlou.