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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments This study would not have been possible without the strong support, vision, and continuing encouragement of Stuart W. Leslie, who introduced me to the history of technology at the Johns Hopkins University well over a decade ago. I am indebted to Robert H. Kargon, Willis K. Shepherd Professor of the History of Science, for shedding light on the institutional development of science and technology in the United States and for introducing me to the work of the philosopher Ludwik Fleck. I would also like to thank Alex Roland, of Duke University, for his continued endorsement of my investigation into the history of naval technology. I am also grateful to Louis Galambos, editor of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, whose seminars in American political and business history at Johns Hopkins allowed me to place American naval technology within an appropriate political context . I am in debt to Paul M. Kennedy, Dilworth Professor of History at Yale University , for providing the opportunity to extend my research on American naval policy into the post-1945 period as a John M. Olin Fellow in Military and Strategic History in the International Security Program at Yale. I also appreciate the friendship of a fine colleague, James Sadkovich, who “internationalized” my perceptions of naval power and strategy during our year in New Haven. I also owe debts to Robert O’Connell and Jon Sumida for the insights their works have offered regarding military technology and the battleship in particular. I am grateful to Rameswar Bhattacharyya, Roger C. Compton, and Paul Van Mater for their interest and pedagogical efforts during my undergraduate education in naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy three decades ago. I also benefited a great deal from the two years I spent as a senior naval architect at John J. McMullen and Associates in northern Virginia. I especially value my interactions with Dr. Volf Asinovsky, whose years of design experience in Leningrad provided me with a unique window into transcultural technological and engineering practices. This study has only been possible due to the financial support I received from various institutions. I would like to thank the Naval Historical Center of Washington , D.C., specifically Dean Allard and Ronald Spector, now of George Washington University, for selecting me as the inaugural Rear Admiral John D. Hayes Fellow in 1987. My research was also aided by the Hoover Presidential Library Association, which designated me a 1988 Hoover Presidential Scholar and the 1988–89 U.S. Senator (Ret.) and Mrs. Roman L. Hruska Fellow. I am indebted to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute of Hyde Park, New York, for a grant to conduct research at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, and to the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society of the Hagley Museum and Library of Wilmington, Delaware, for an additional grant to explore the Elmer A. Sperry Papers. Some later portions of this study were undertaken at James Madison University, where I was blessed with a pleasant group of colleagues on the history faculty. I am grateful to the head of the history department, Michael Galgano, for granting me release from some of my teaching responsibilities over several semesters to devote time to this book. I also appreciate the external financial support for my research that resulted from my selection as inaugural Edna T. Shaeffer Distinguished Humanist at James Madison in 1993. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Department of History at the United States Naval Academy for their support. I have benefited a great deal from conversations on naval history with Fred Harrod, Bob Love, Bill Roberts, and Craig Symonds. I am especially indebted to Eric Reed for numerous thought-provoking theoretical discussions, grounded firmly in naval realities. Many of my students over the years have been exposed to my ideas, and I appreciate their responses. I would like to thank Bill Roberts for his patient advice and Bob Love for the insight he has provided into the personalities who populated the twentieth-century navy. I also owe thanks to the military members of the history faculty whose questions as new instructors have forced me to clarify and refine many of my conceptualizations of American naval history. I also appreciate the readings of various sections of this study by my colleagues, David Appleby, Mary DeCredico, Allison Fuss, and Brian Van De Mark. Any historical study dealing with the federal government requires the sifting of extensive archival records. If not for...