Editor’s Note

Editor's Note The past eight years as co-editor of the CanadianReview ofAmericanStudies have been challenging ones, and they have also left me with many personal debts that can of course never be repaid except by saying thank you. Anyone who has been associated with this (or any other journal editorship) will know that only collaborative efforts result in any success. Earlier editors, in particular Bruce Di3-nielsand John Teunissen and subsequently Ernie Redekop and Jean Matthews established the journal on a firm foundation. Our subscriptions have always been comparatively small, but we have had a solid, loyal, and in recent years increased readership. When the journal passed to Christine Bold and me eight years ago, we sought to maintain the best of the past traditions and to move closer to the interdisciplinary mandate that we had been encouraged by readers and SSHRC to address. I believe that we were largely successful in that endeavour and appreciate the remarkable support that we had from colleagues in art, sociology, political science, economics, and other disciplines that had only tangentially in the past been associated with the journal. I have felt that in the past few years we have been losing some of that interdisciplinary orientation and returning more to the literature and history base on which we began. Those who now take the editorship will have to determine the direction of the journal, and I would like to take this opportunity to wish Priscilla Walton every success in the coming years. Particular and very special appreciation must go to two people: Christine Bold and Eileen Delman. Christine was always a stimulating partner in our work together as co-editors on the journal. It was an intellectual voyage in which I learned as much as I contributed to our partnership, and I thank her for all of those things. Eileen, I think all associated with the journal will agree, was its mainstay as editorial assistant over those eight years. She always worked far beyond the hours which were asked and put her heart into ensuring that the journal met high technical standards, that papers were reviewed on time, that our book review section was in good order, and that vu the journal met its publication deadlines. Without her, none of that could have been accomplished. Our associate editors, Sherrill Grace, Janet Mancini Billson, Bruce Tucker, and in the first years Ernie Redekop and Jean Matthews, contributed regularly to the journal with time, intellect, ideas, and constructive criticism. It was their collective effort that kept us on course. The book review section was handled with skill during the years in which I served as co-editor by Sheldon Silverman, Jeanne Perreault, John Stephen Martin, Michael Dorland, and Norman Knowles. I would also like to express my personal appreciation to the members of the editorial board. They reviewed manuscripts, attended meetings, provided useful and timely advice on many issues, and over the years many of them, previously only professional acquaintances, became friends. Finally, I would be remiss were I not to mention the very professional work of the University of Calgary Press, which has published the journal and managed our records over the years. The director of the Press, Shirley Onn and the journals coordinator, Judy Powell, were always supportive and professional in their work on the journal, and I remain convinced that moving to publication by a university press was the right decision at the time and remains the case. Once again, thank you, readers, editors, editorial board, and colleagues for your consistent support over the years. Stephen J.Randall FRSC vm ...