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Acknowledgments A series of thanks reads curiously like a eulogy. But then, here it is. Over the years,from the beginning through the numerous revisions of this manuscript, I have become indebted to many people.A book is in innumerable ways a collective creation. I owe a debt of gratitude to the troubled family of the Centre d’Études et de Documentation Économique Juridique et Sociale (CEDEJ)— an amazing center of pluridisciplinary academic encounter, unlike any other, with a remarkable collection of dossiers and eclectic, passionate minds. I owe most to those people,too many to be named,who shared with a foreigner and a stranger bits and pieces of their lives and thoughts in the midst of much distrust. Thus, the testimonies that seem to so naturally belong to the pages of this manuscript were more often than not a struggle to gather.I am grateful for the generosity of the people who received me into their homes even while they did not know me, like the Masri family in Ismailia and the 'Awad family in Port Said. May Ra'uf 'Abbas, 'Amm 'Awad, 'Abd al-Rahim al-Banna, and 'Amm 'Uthman rest in peace. These were rare and noble hearts. Many helped with the little, big, and grueling tasks of book writing and editing. Some read parts or all of my manuscript. Others provided insightful professional and technical advice.Others gave me needed encouragement and professional and academic support. Others corrected my Frenglish. At both ends of my journey, I am most indebted to James B. Collins, my unrelenting mentor and first editor. Our intellectual exchange, while I was doing research in Egypt, was crucial to the existence of this book. I am equally grateful to Walter Armbrust, a man whose knowledge and humility have inspired me as a teacher and as a scholar. He much informed the theoretical direction of this work. At the other end of the journey I am grateful to Israel Gershoni for his sagacity. He welcomed a stranger to his table and gave me invaluable recommendations. I am thankful to many of my colleagues and to diverse institutions for their support during the different stages of this work: to Eve Troutt-Powell and Pillarisetti Sudhir when I was at the American Histori- cal Association (AHA); to Philip Khoury at the welcoming Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and in my new home, to the indispensable Patricia Goodwin, to Michaela Hoenicke-Moore, Dean Raul Curto, Lisa Heineman, Colin Gordon, Stephen Vlastos, Shel Stromquist, Michael Moore,Paul Greenough,Jeffrey Cox,and to the resourceful John Hammond. For his help over the years, too, I extend heartfelt thanks to Dr. John Voll. At the University Press of Florida, for their work bringing my manuscript to press,my sincere thanks toAmy Gorelick and most especially to Nevil Parker and Patti Bower for their exemplary scrutiny, their professionalism, and their compassion. Many organizations and institutions supported the research for this book. In Cairo, I thank Mahmoud Salah, chief editor at Akhir Sa'a. In Port Said, I salute Colonel Salah al-Din al-Sukri, director of the Museum of War.While obscurantism and politics plagued many of my bureaucratic endeavors in Egypt this year, these individuals received my project with intellectual interest , respect, and professionalism. In Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress was my home away from home for years, and it hosted me again for a fruitful summer in 2007, thanks to the National History Center and Wm. Roger Louis, as well as the American Historical Association. At the University of Iowa Library, I thank the bibliographer of the Middle East and Africa collection, Dr. Edward Miner, who is simply amazing. I thank the many institutions that have supported this work financially. I am most grateful to the Fulbright Commission, as well as to MIT and the University of Iowa, which provided me with research funds for the completion of this project and the beginning of a new one. In Cairo, still and always my love to Shohdy Muhammad and his inspiring creative historical fabrications that glow like the ends of his ever-burning cigarettes. Thanks to Mahmud al-Wardani, voice of many untold tales. In Boston, I thank for their encouragement and friendship the mad Paul Saba and the wise Abu Ahmad. I am honored to know them. They brought me warmth and an irreplaceable sense of place and self. In Iowa City, that sense of place I owe in equal measure to Lisa, Michaela, and...

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