Preface

As the Journal of Policy History enters its twenty-first year of publication, we are pleased to announce that beginning with this issue Cambridge University Press is the new publisher of the journal. This new relationship will allow the journal to expand in length, as well as enlarge its international readership.

When the journal began publication twenty years ago, the founding editors, Peri Arnold and I, were uncertain as to the reception of this new enterprise. We believed that the journal might provide an "interdisciplinary forum for schools concerned with the application of historical perspectives to public policy." From the outset, we were encouraged by the number and quality of submissions that we received. Over the course of the twenty years, the journal has published outstanding scholars in History, Political Science, Sociology, and the other social sciences. These authors included established scholars such as the late Aaron Wildavsky, Douglas Ashford, and Hugh Davis Graham—and many others too numerous to name, as well as many younger scholars who have gone on to have outstanding scholarly careers. We established a reputation for publishing consistently high quality articles, which helped establish policy history into a recognizable field. In the process, we contributed to maintaining political history as a lively field of scholarship in History, while aiding the growth of American Political Development in Political Science.

In recent years, the Journal of Policy History has increasingly attracted scholars from abroad who have found an outlet for publication for their research. As a consequence, the journal fulfilled its intention of encouraging research into the formation and development of public policy in other countries and comparative historical approaches to policy.

By expanding the length of the journal, we will provide further opportunities for scholars from abroad, while opening new opportunities to scholars interested in American policy history. In addition, the journal plans to include as a regular feature book forums which allow reviewers and authors to engage in lively scholarly exchanges. The journal will continue to publish special issues in which invited editors organize leading scholars in their fields to write on specific topical issues. The journal expects also to organize scholarly forums on more limited topics which may not warrant a full-sized special issue, but deserve scholarly attention. The Journal of Policy History welcomes suggestions from its readers for special issues, scholarly and book forums.

The Journal of Policy History wants to take this occasion to thank those many people who have contributed to the journal over the years—current and past members of the editorial board, authors who have submitted their work to the journal, and to our readers. We want to take this opportunity to thank Sandy Thatcher, director of Penn State University Press, and his excellent staff , for their assistance in helping establish the Journal of Policy History. We look forward to working with Cambridge University Press to take the journal to the next level. This will enable us, we believe, twenty years from now to repeat those words that mean so much to friends and a scholarly community: "Thank you for your support."