ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book has evolved over a number of years and through research in a number of libraries. I would like to thank the staffs of the following ones: the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, San Diego State University, the University of California-San Diego, California State University-Fullerton, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Texas-Austin, the New York Public Library, the British Library, the Casa de Velázquez, and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. I am especially grateful to the interlibrary loan staffs at the first two libraries mentioned.

I have received support for research from my deans over the years and would like to mention particularly Steven Rosenstone and James Parente, deans in succession of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. I enjoyed the intellectual stimulation and exchange during the academic year 2008–9, when I was an invited research scholar at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas-Austin. I have benefited from the questions, comments, and suggestions of many graduate and undergraduate students over the years. I would like to single out for special praise Kevin Mummey for valuable research assistance and Lawrence V. Mott for both valuable research assistance and preparing the maps. My editor at the University of Pennsylvania Press, Jerry Singerman, has been particularly indulgent over the years of the book’s evolution. I greatly appreciate his unfailing patience. And, of course, my wife Carla, as always.