In This Issue

Not many readers of Technology and Culture realize how much work goes into guest editing a special issue of the journal. The number of proposals for new special issues on interesting and important topics attests to that. But prudence is a virtue that many do seem to have cultivated. The number of those proposals quietly allowed to fade away once it becomes clear what producing a theme issue entails attests to that.

This implies no criticism of the contributors to theme issues—something like the opposite, in fact. Still, it is the editor's job to turn a group of soloists into a band, for one tune at least, and that is slightly easier said than done. The special issues that T&C has published over the years have proved helpful to both scholars and teachers, and so it is fortunate that some of those proposals, at least, did finally materialize, thanks in large part to the work of their guest editors.

Normally in this space we offer a brief summary of the articles in this issue. But the guest editor of this special theme issue on Dutch water technologies, Martin Reuss, has done that and more in his introduction. Better, then, to simply direct the reader to that essay and instead take the opportunity to thank Dr. Reuss for bringing this issue together.