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SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [-11], Lines: —— 1.0pt ——— Norma * PgEnd [-11], acknowledgments The cover of this book would have readers believe that this was the work of one person. Anyone who has written a monograph understands that such is never the case. This undertaking involved dozens of people, and it would be nearly impossible for me to acknowledge everyone who helped with the project. I began this work in Jane Landers’s borderlands graduate seminar at Vanderbilt University, trying to reconcile what I was reading in the Latin American primary sources with secondary sources written by U.S. historians. Anyone who has ever met Jane knows what a kind heart she has. As an advisor she gave her time more than generously, providing me with guidance, contacts among historians , and pointers for working in foreign archives. I owe her an intellectual and professional debt that I can never repay. I was proud to call myself her student— still prouder to call her a friend. Don Doyle served as my primary advisor at Vanderbilt and helped me to understand the ways in which the development of the U.S. South might link to the southern borderlands. His conceptions of nationality, especially that of the Confederacy and in Italy, were insightful and contributed to my own intellectual framework for this book. Don was also willing to put down whatever he was doing to listen to crazy theories spilling out of the mouth of the graduate student who burst into his office. The Southern Social History Group and numerous dissertation seminars at Vanderbilt University provided insightful and pointed readings as I was completing the first phase of this work. Tycho de Boer, Ed Harcourt, and Rob Lawson especially took the time for multiple critical readings that improved it dramatically. The members of the 1717 Society participated in many late-night seminars on this project. They deserve a great deal of thanks. Barbara Oberg at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University taught me more about research, intellectual patience, and paleography in the two years I spent there than I had learned in my entire graduate career. Jim McClure and Elaine Pascu, also at the Papers, mentored me in more ways than they could know. My time there gave me professional training as well as access to a world-class library and a terrific intellectual community. Research for this work took me to archives in Cuba, England, and Spain. In Cuba, Licenciada Coralia Alonso Valdéz, Licenciada Patria Cok Marquéz, Don Julio López Valdéz, and other folks at the Archivo Nacional de Cuba helped me navigate the archives there. Domestically the staff at the National Archives in xi xii • Acknowledgments SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [-12], Lines: —— * 36.56 ——— Norma * PgEnd [-12], Washington, D.C., and College Park gave me stack access and left me alone to prowl millions of records. Dane Hartgrove at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, especially, showed me where to find materials and how not to get lost in the maze of stacks. Staff at the Hill Memorial Library at Louisiana State University helped me locate a great deal of material I would otherwise have missed. Research trips to Baton Rouge would not have been possible without Kurt Kemper, who provided a place to stay and hours of beer and college football. When I wanted to talk about research, he knew when to listen—and when to tell me to shut up. He is a good friend. My current home of Western Kentucky University has provided assistance of every sort, and confining my thanks to these pages seems a disservice. Thousands of dollars in summer research grants helped send an Americanist to foreign language archives without so much as a furrowed brow. Colleagues here read drafts of the manuscript and helped me think of this work in different ways. Robert Dietle and Marion Lucas commented on drafts, Rick Keyser and Eric Reed helped correct my French and listened patiently to my ideas, and Patricia...

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