In the ten years that I have spent studying American labor and political history, I have accumulated a number of important debts. First, I would like to acknowledge the influence of Jean Kempf and Vincent Michelot, who not only supported this project in both intellectual and institutional ways, but also set an example showing me what an américaniste should be. I am also indebted to Arnaud Roujou de Boubée and the French American Commission for a one-year Fulbright Scholarship in 2001–2002 that allowed me to start the research on which this book is based.
Along the way, I benefited from the assistance of numerous librarians and archivists. This book could not have been written without the aid of staffs at the special collections at the Georgetown University Library, the Kheel Center in Ithaca, New York, the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. I have also benefitted from the generous help of Dominique Daniel, who provided incredible research assistance at a crucial stage in the project, and to Suzanne Gordon, who eagerly opened her home and shared her expertise and knowledge of the world of nurses.
Since 2005 I have had the good fortune to teach at the Université Paris-Diderot. My gratitude goes to Robert Mankin, the head of our research group, as well as Catherine Bernard and Jean-Marie Fournier for their gracious support and all the colleagues who inquired about the advancement of my project. The publication of the book also coincided with our transferring to a new, modern campus, and for me the work on the manuscript will forever be linked to the streets of the Marais and the joyful spirit I found there. To the “cons gang”—Marc Olivier Baruch, Clarisse Berthezène, and Laura Lee Downs—you guys are the best. No one else mixes so well historical arguments with humor, good food, and great wine. Working with you on postwar conservatism has been a true and rare pleasure.
In addition, I am indebted to all the American and French historians who have provided me with the kind of critical but supportive comments that help a scholar stick with a project. I would like to thank particularly Sébastien Chauvin, Catherine Collomp, Daniel Ernst, Gary Gerstle, Guy Groux, Romain Huret, Robert Mason, Mark Meigs, Pap N’diaye, Johann Neem, Isabelle Richet, Alexandre Rios Bordes, Paul Schor, Maud Simonet, François Weil, and Mark Wilson. Gerald Friedman read the entire manuscript and gave this project an early boost by pushing me to publish an article in Labor History. I am grateful for our exchanges over the years as well as for his kind reminders that this book did not have to be my last word on the topic.
This book bears the indelible imprint of the teaching and intellectual influence of Nelson Lichtenstein, whose engaged scholarship has been a model for me ever since I met him as a graduate student at the University of Virginia. It was Nelson who first suggested that I write a paper about recent cases in which the courts had whittled down the definition of “employee,” and since I decided to expand that investigation into a book reaching back into the nineteenth century, he has lent me the same energetic and upbeat support he brings to the happy few who climb mountains with him. I have argued over the implications of the difference between “worker” and “employee” for years with Joe McCartin, my sponsor for the Fulbright Scholarship in 2001–2002. Ever since, his generosity and buoyant wisdom have sustained this book in more ways than I could mention, and today I am glad to count him as a comrade and coauthor. I am also thankful for Michael Kazin’s unswerving commitment to this book. As series editor, Michael not only made numerous suggestions to improve the narrative and sharpen my interpretations, but also changed my perspective on what writing history really means. If readers unacquainted with labor history can read this book, it is largely thanks to his masterly input.
At Penn I have benefitted from Bob Lockhart’s expert editorship. Bob sustained the project very early on by giving me an advance contract, and then patiently waited for long-overdue chapters. Yet when he finally had the manuscript in hand, he immediately turned his attention to it and took the time to make numerous suggestions that gave the book its final shape. I am also grateful to Rachel Taube and Noreen O’Connor for their work on the production of the manuscript and to Melissa Marshall for her help with the marketing.
Then there are the greatest of debts. There are no better friends than Cyril Cammas, Becky Choi, Alexis Chommeloux, John Edwards, Bertrand Gommier, Yohan Levy, Carine Marion, Alix Martin, Matthieu and Emmanuelle Massart, Said Ouaked, and Valérie Peinot. My parents and brothers have long supported my academic endeavors, while kindly reminding me of the things that really matter beyond academic life. I could not have asked for a better family and I look forward to many more annual vacations in our hometown. I am also thankful to Michel and Eliane Ehrhardt for letting me turn a part of their home into a writing camp. Last, I have been lucky enough to share the adventure of academic life with Caroline Ehrhardt. Her love, wit, and laughter have made it a joyful one. The birth of Alice has made it perfect.