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Acknowledgments
- Russell Sage Foundation
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- Additional Information
Acknowledgments T HIS BOOK is the outcome of a project not only ambitious—too ambitious , it often seemed—but also very long in the time it took to accomplish. Neither the research nor the writing would have been possible without the financial support—reflecting a belief in the project’s ultimate value highly comforting to the author—of generous and patient donors. In the course of earlier work on the comparative social history and politics of women’s adolescence as a public problem in the early and late twentieth century in the United States, I had become convinced of the potential of comparative history and social science for illuminating the sometimes incomprehensible trajectories of contemporary public health policies in this country. I was further impressed with the importance of social movements as policy actors. My first step down the path culminating in this book—a comparative analysis of tobacco and gun control as social movements in the United States—was made possible by a grant from the Association of Schools of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. My ability to expand this initial project to include other countries and other issues was entirely due to the wonderful program of Health Policy Research Investigator Awards initiated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation only a year before I applied in 1994. Research trips to London and Paris! Who could ask for more? A year as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation (of which more below) enabled me to consolidate what I had learned and to embark on the historical (that is, late nineteenth and early twentieth century) pieces of my project. It also made me recognize that I needed an extended period of fieldwork in Canada. A grant from the newly inaugurated Fulbright New Century Scholars Program enabled me to spend two productive months at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada in Montreal and an additional essential week in Vancouver. Finally, it was my extraordinary good fortune to be given four weeks in the late summer of 2005 as a scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. During that never-to-be-forgotten period of peace and seclusion the manxi uscript took more or less its final form. For this continuing and nearly seamless support throughout a very long period of gestation I am grateful beyond words. In equal measure this book owes its being to the many individuals in the United States, France, Britain, and Canada who shared with me their expert knowledge of public health policy formation and implementation and handed me on to others with whom, I was often told, I must speak. They were always right. Such insight as I have gained into the contemporary politics of public health is largely due to the generosity of people on the ground (many of whom were actively engaged in the policy process) with their time, patience, and knowledge. Some of those with whom I spoke were public figures with published views, and I have cited them in the text by name. Others less well known I have identified by position (for example, civil servant). There are people, however, whose contributions to this project extended well beyond that of informant, crossing the boundary into colleague and friend. Special thanks are due to Nicholas Freudenberg, Sam Friedman, John Gagnon, and David Vlahov in the United States; Albert Hirsch, Pascal Mélihan-Chenin, Karen Slama, and Monica Steffen in France; Virginia Berridge, William Bynum, Sue and Sebastian Freudenberg, and Simon Szreter in the United Kingdom ; and Norbert Gilmore, Antonia Maioni, and Suzanne Staggenborg in Canada. Insofar as this project was a joy and a pleasure—and it often was—they are responsible. Neither the external financial support nor the internal energy and conviction required to see this project through would have been possible without the steady friendship and commitment of many colleagues, some long-standing and others I was fortunate to meet along the way. All have been important, but two have been critical, one early in my career and the other more recently. W. Henry Mosley was my department chair during most of my long tenure at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. I am indebted to Henry for his conviction that the social sciences are critically important to public health, for his unswerving belief in my capacities as a scholar, and for never discouraging me from thinking big. Ronald Bayer...