Rome Reborn on Western Shores: Historical Imagination and the Creation of the American Republic

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments When i took the first steps toward writing the manuscript on which this book is based, a friend warned me of the intellectual sharks swimming in the Hobbesian waters of academia. They will, my good-intentioned adviser cautioned, take a snap whenever they get a chance.That friend could not have been more wrong. In terms of mentors, I was lucky twice. Jack Greene has inspired and encouraged my work since I arrived at Johns Hopkins University as a graduate student and served ever since as an unsurpassed model of how to conduct diligent and critical scholarship. As all of Jack’s numerous students have learned, the quest for (intellectual) power is intrinsic to the pursuits of happiness, academic and otherwise. I cannot thank Jack enough for all this, as well as for braving, for the second time in his long and distinguished career,to accept an Israeli student. His first was Avihu Zakai, whom I thank not only for being the most dedicated and generous M.A. mentor, but also, especially, for teaching me invaluable lessons outside the strict academic curriculum,including the worth and beauty of humanistic erudition and true friendship. Peter Onuf was (understandably) skeptical when I could not recite the exact (and obviously too long) working title of my manuscript. However, ever since I imposed on him one of my chapters, he has proved a wonderful friend and caring mentor in the Greenesque style. Laura Kalman has provided help, academically and otherwise, in her signature ways (including answering e-mails before they were sent) every step of the way. Words cannot convey my gratitude for her friendship.To Dorothy Ross I owe my broad view of American intellectual history,and I thank her for generously xii Acknowledgments commenting on my work. Her perceptive insights improved this study greatly. I thank Michael Johnson for many uplifting and edifying discussions on topics that include,but are not restricted to,American history and for setting an admirable model for intellectual curiosity and stimulating teaching.I am grateful to Phil Morgan for his helpful advice and assistance and for reading portions of this work and offering criticism in private and public forums. Friends have enriched the years I spent in Baltimore in ideal as well as in corporal ways. David Nirenberg made me think and rethink ideas with his paradigm-shifting observations between sets in the gym and runs in Roland Park. David Bell, a great historian of a European republic, insisted and verified that I made clear—to myself and to him—“what is at stake.” He has ever since made sure I do not forget. Ken Moss read and astutely commented on my work and endured discussions on history in environments that were not always accommodating for intellectual discourse. Jane Dailey provided me with perceptive observations that could come only from a post-eighteenth-century historian. Chris Brown provided me with many insights on the nature of the American Revolution, while Matt Roller expanded exponentially my knowledge of the classics, and Dan Richter provided timely and much needed help and encouragement. I was lucky to benefit from the friendship and criticism of Michael Zakim, Amit Yahav, Dror Wahrman, Maurizio Valsania, and Zur Shalev (for the protocol: other than curiously parallel careers and a shared name, no relation). I am especially thankful to John Pocock,whose epoch-making studies have shaped my view of history. Professor Pocock has also provided me with invaluable advice. Perhaps the timeliest came after I presented to him a half-baked prospectus: “But someone has already written the Machiavellian Moment.”I wish to thank the anonymous readers at the University of Virginia Press for their comments , which made me think harder about my work and improved this study significantly. I benefited from comments on chapters I presented to the members of the Early American Seminar at Johns Hopkins. I especially thank Molly Warsh, Jessica Spivey, Justin Roberts, and Catherine Molineux for their cherished friendship and valuable comments. Mary Ashburn Miller has provided excellent criticism and editorial advice. I thank Dimtri Shevchenko for his editorial assistance and the University of Pennsylvania xiii Acknowledgments Press for permitting the re-publication of early versions of chapters 2 and 5 in Early American Studies 4, no. 1 (2006), and the Journal of the Early Republic 23, no. 2 (2003), respectively. I especially thank my family for enduring many transatlantic flights while this study was...