The World of the John Birch Society: Conspiracy, Conservatism, and the Cold War

Acknowledgments

xi Acknowledgments Many people have contributed to this book and I am extremely grateful to all of them. Much of the initial research for it took place in the wonderful archives of the Wilcox Collection for Contemporary Political Movements in the Kenneth Spenser Research Library at the University of Kansas. Because of the expertise and generosity of all the staff there, including Tara Wenger, Karen Cook, Letha Johnson, Sherry Williams, Deborah Dandridge, Meredith Huff, Toni Bresler, and especially Rebecca Schulte and Kathy Lafferty, the time I spent in Lawrence was immensely rewarding and productive. I am very grateful for the short term research grant I received from the Research Office of Wilfrid Laurier University for enabling that trip, as well as for a book preparation grant. My thanks also to the dedicated librarians of my own university who have helped with this project in countless ways, especially Patti Metzger, Angela Davidson, and Hélène LeBlanc, as well as to the outstanding administrative assistants in the History Department at Laurier, Colleen Ginn and Cindi Wieg. I would like to thank my editor at Vanderbilt University Press, Eli Bortz, for his enthusiasm for, and commitment to, the project, as well as all the people at Vanderbilt who worked so hard to bring it to fruition, including Susan Havlish, Betsy Phillips, Joell Smith-Borne, and Peg Duthie. Adam Crerar and David Monod read the manuscript at various stages: their careful attentiveness and insightfulness—as well as that of two anonymous reviewers—improved the book beyond measure. Thank you. Thank you also to Sarah Cracknell, Jónsi Birgisson, Neil Halstead, and Mark Hollis for keeping me company during the writing process, and to my friends and colleagues in the History Department at Wilfrid Laurier University, where I have the great pleasure to teach. Above all, though, I would like to thank the two other writers in my family, Pamela and Esme Mulloy, for their love, support, and considerable patience. Fantastic? Of course it’s fantastic. . . . We are living in fantastic times and a fantastic situation. . . . We are in circumstances where it is realistic to be fantastic. —Robert Welch, The Blue Book A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. —Don DeLillo, Libra ...