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xvii Acknowledgments B iographies tell as much about the relationships their subjects cultivated as they tell about their individual subjects themselves . Alexander Meiklejohn had many friends and many enemies , each of whom influenced his activities and his beliefs in different ways, both great and small. My job as a biographer has been to discover, describe, and ultimately interpret the relative importance of Meiklejohn’s many relationships. As a writer, researcher, and scholar, I, too, have relied on relationships—with friends, relatives, and total strangers—to aid me in my work. I take this opportunity to acknowledge a few of those relationships here. First and foremost, I must thank John L. Thomas, my graduate adviser , for his constant support and encouragement. Every doctoral student should have a mentor as kind and considerate as he has been to me. Second , I am indebted to James Patterson, whose extremely close readings and incisive criticisms made my manuscript more concise, more clearly written, and more cogently argued than it might otherwise have been. Third, I thank Tom James, who generously agreed to serve on my dissertation committee after a semester-long tutorial and then remained on my committee after moving to New York University. Fourth, I wish to thank Carl Kaestle, who joined my committee after he came to Brown during my final year of graduate school and gave me time to finish my thesis when I should have been doing research for him. To these professors and others who remain unnamed, I owe a profound debt of gratitude. The writing of this book would certainly not have been possible without the aid of several outstanding archivists. At the Brown University Archives, I benefited from the unfailingly friendly assistance of Martha Mitchell, Gayle Lynch, and Ray Butti. At the Amherst College Library, I enjoyed the good-humored help of Daria D’Arienzo, Carol Trabulsi, Donna Skibel, Janet Poirrier, Barbara Trippel Simmons, and Peter Weiss. At the University of Wisconsin Archives, I was assisted by both Bernard Schermetzler and Frank Cook. At the archives of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, I benefited from the efficient and professional service of Gerry Strey, Dee Grimsrud, and many other staff members. Finally, at the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley, I appreciated the time and openness of Ann Fagan Ginger. For providing the gracious surroundings in which I composed most of my dissertation, I owe special thanks to the staff of the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization, particularly Joyce Botelho, Jane Hennedy, and Denise Bastien. Since the bulk of the research for this book was done far away from my home, I must thank those who provided food and shelter during my extended trips. In South Hadley, Massachusetts, I stayed for an entire week with Susie Castellanos. In Oregon, Wisconsin, on three separate occasions , I enjoyed the easy-going hospitality of Lori, Arlan, and Kietra Kay, as well as their many pets. In Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of five weeks over the course of two years with my cousins, Aaron and Nathan, and my uncle, Mark Schafer. In Berkeley, California, I stayed for two summer months with the extraordinary Parsley family, including Janet, Allen, Nathan, Tom, Ruth, and Mickey. Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 might not have been as detailed and chapters 3 and 4 might not have been written without the nourishment I received from Janet’s unparalleled cookies and conversation. I have received a great deal of helpful feedback from readers solicited by the University of Wisconsin Press, including Paul Boyer, Charles Anderson , Michael Hinden, Rodney Smolla, Robert Booth Fowler, and E. David Cronon. I have also received feedback from alumni of the Experimental College, which Alexander Meiklejohn created at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1920s. Comments came chiefly from Robert Frase, Leslie Orear, E. R. Lerner, and R. Freeman Butts. Roland Guyotte of the University of Minnesota–Morris read chapters 5 and 6 as well as the afterword in their unabridged dissertation form and offered comments that were later forwarded to me. I also received three very helpful letters from Meiklejohn’s son Donald, who offered suggestions that helped to focus my analysis of his father’s life and work. Drafts of this book improved immensely as a result of the comments and criticisms I received from friends. Peter Baldwin, Chrissy Cortina, Julie DesJardins, Nathaniel Frank, L. E. Hartmann, Laura Prieto, and Ed Rafferty all contributed to the process of revising my text...

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