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Foreword This book is the idea of Professor Lorman “Larry” A. Ratner, emeritus professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and, from 1999–2007, adjunct professor of history at the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign .While editing the manuscript, Professor Ratner died of a heart attack on July 14, 2007, just a few days before his seventy-fifth birthday. Although my name may appear in connection with this book, Larry Ratner did the lion’s share of the research and writing. As I view this book, it is 60 percent the work of Professor Ratner, 20 percent the work of his wife, Paula Kaufman, university librarian and dean of libraries of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and perhaps 20 percent the work of the undersigned Dwight Teeter. Recently, Dr. Ratner’s scholarship focused increasingly on the press of mid-nineteenth-century America, adding to his long-standing interests in multiculturalism, civil rights, nineteenth-century politics and social movements , and American cultural history. His books include Antimasonry: The Crusade and the Party; Andrew Jackson and HisTennessee Lieutenants; Powder Keg: Northern Opposition to the Antislavery Movement, 1831–1840; Pre–Civil War Reform:The Variety of Principles and Programs; The Development of anAmerican Culture (with Stanley Coben); Multiculturalism in the United States (with John Buenker); James Kirke Paulding: The Last Republican; and Fanatics and FireEaters : Newspapers and the Coming of the Civil War (with Dwight Teeter). Larry Ratner was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Tennessee from 1986 to 1996, where he played a major role in changing the university to a research campus. He returned to the classroom in 1996 to teach history full time. He taught there until 1999, when he and Paula moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His integrity was reflected in his scholarship. His wide-ranging knowledge of civil rights issues and his insistence on multicultural fairness were apparent in his work as a dean at Tennessee and also characterized his earlier career, as a faculty member and administrator at Lehman College, at City University of New York, as vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside, and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Centers (now UW Colleges). xii / paradoxes of prosperity As a journalism historian who served with Larry as a dean at Tennessee, from 1991 to 1996, it was my great pleasure to continue my conversations with my wise and witty ally thereafter, working on two books while our friendship grew even stronger.This book, which shows, among other things, his wide-ranging knowledge of nineteenth-century American literature, religion, and culture, is a final conversation with an accomplished American historian named Lorman A. Ratner. Dwight L. Teeter Jr. Knoxville, Tennessee July 31, 2008 ...

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