Some of the smartest historians working today read all or much of this book as I wrote it. Robert McMahon, Eric Arnesen, and Rebecca Lowen took extraordinary time and care in reading every word and provided an awesome level of response, as did some anonymous readers. Ken Lipartito, Andrew Preston, Alan Brinkley, Jeanne Grant, and Jon Zimmerman read big pieces and, as the saying goes, rescued me from embarrassment on a number of key points. Geri Thoma represented this project faithfully. Philip Leventhal, my editor at Columbia University Press, showed unwavering enthusiasm and made many very wise suggestions. Philip is that rare thing in intellectual life—a listener, not just a talker. I revised the manuscript in the welcoming embrace of the Institute for Archaeology, Conservation, and History at the University of Oslo, during a splendid semester there as a Fulbright Scholar. My profound thanks go to Professor Tor Egil Førland, head of the department, for the outstanding hospitality he showed me and my family, and to the whole staff and faculty in Oslo. I also owe thanks to students at Metropolitan State University who have taken my course “From Reagan to Obama: America Since 1980.” They helped me refine my ideas and express them clearly. Annalisa Zox-Weaver proved a copyeditor nonpareil—she was more knowledgeable about the subject matter than I had a right to expect—and ironed out my maladroit phrasing with diligence and good humor. The entire production process at Columbia was coordinated by the splendid Leslie Kriesel, who, in one especially heroic moment, really saved my bacon.
Words will not express how much better Rebecca Lowen made this book. She was patience itself in her detailed and reflective reading of more drafts of chapters, and then of the whole manuscript, than I can recount. Rebecca went over each chapter with incredible care and thoughtfulness, gently pointing out numerous ways I could strengthen my work. No one else could have done this. This book topic might have been the last one to which she would have chosen to devote so many hours and days, but she did so without a word of complaint. For this, and for more important things, she has my everlasting gratitude as well as my love.