I could not have written this book without the support of numerous foundations and fellowship programs. I am particularly grateful to the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, where I spent a year researching and writing the book. Special thanks to Jean Strouse, its former director; Salvatore Scibona, the current director; and deputy directors Lauren Goldenberg and Paul Delaverdac, whose support and geniality make the Cullman Center such an exceptional place.
I am equally grateful to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which awarded me an Andrew Carnegie fellowship in 2018, and to Type Media Center, where I have been a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow. Thanks in particular to Taya Kitman, who has been an invaluable supporter and loyal friend. I also want to thank the Russell Sage Foundation, where I spent several months as a visiting journalist, and in particular Sheldon Danzinger, RSF’s president, and Claire Gabriel, who helped me with research. Thanks as well to the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, which awarded me a Monroe Fellowship to do some research in the Gulf, and to Rebecca Snedeker, its brilliant executive director.
I am immensely indebted to Sarah Chalfant of the Wylie Agency. Sarah is the best agent and advocate a writer could hope to have. Thanks as well to Luke Ingram and Rebecca Nagel for their assistance and encouragement.
No person shaped this book more than Eric Chinski, a brilliant editor who I feel very lucky to have worked with. Eric’s passion for ideas, his unerring judgment, and his deep commitment to his authors made me feel accompanied during the long, often lonely process that writing a book can be. Thanks also to Julia Ringo for her excellent editorial suggestions and to Janine Barlow for her expert fine-tuning.
I am grateful to Daniel Zalewski, a legendary editor at The New Yorker who encouraged me to investigate the abuses at the Dade Correctional Institution. Working with Daniel has taught me so much about how to craft and report a story. I’m also grateful to Sasha Weiss, with whom I had the pleasure to work on a story about the wounds that encumber drone warriors.
I owe a special debt to Eric Klinenberg, who, a decade ago, encouraged me to apply to the PhD program in sociology at NYU, and who later invited me to become a visiting scholar at the Institute for Public Knowledge. It was through the program that I came across the work of Everett Hughes. I am equally grateful to Steven Lukes, a mentor and intellectual inspiration whose feedback on an early draft was invaluable.
Many thanks to Andy Young for fact-checking the book with care and levity. Thanks also to Margot Olavarrio for helping with translation, and to Sara Feinstein for research assistance.
One thing that makes writing a book less lonely is the support and comradeship of fellow writers and friends. I am particularly grateful to Adam Shatz, Sasha Abramsky, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Laura Secor, Scott Sherman, Gregory Pardlo, Mona El-Ghobashy, Ari Berman, Steven Dudley, Kirk Semple, Caitlin Zaloom, Chase Madar, Jennifer Turner, Nicole Fleetwood, Neil Gross, and Peter Yost, and to the wonderful group of fellows I got to know at the Cullman Center, in particular Ava Chin, Nellie Hermann, Joan Acocella, Sarah Bridger, Martin Puchner, Blake Gopnik, Hugh Eakin, and Barbara Weinstein.
My deepest debt of all goes to my family: my generous and loving parents, Carla and Shalom; my incredible mother-in-law, Graciela Sas-Abelin Rose, who read a draft of the book and offered valuable feedback; my sister, Sharon, for her love and support; and my brother- and sister-in-law, Laurent Abelin and Suzanne Ehlers, for making the time away from work so memorable and fun. Above all, I am grateful to my wife, Mireille Abelin, whose love enriches my life immeasurably and whose commitment to emotional and intellectual growth challenges and inspires me. She is also my most perceptive and discerning reader, and an amazing mother to our beautiful children, Milena and Octavio.