Many Identities, One Nation: The Revolution and Its Legacy in the Mid-Atlantic

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book reaches back into my own distant past. I began work on it at the University of Pennsylvania, where I benefited from relationships with a remarkable range of colleagues and with the vibrant city of Philadelphia. This book could never have been completed without Richard S. Dunn's supportive guidance and the egalitarian camaraderie that his spirit and determination lent to the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies (now the McNeil Center). Another absolutely unrepayable debt lowe is to Michael Zuckerman and his endlessly challenging contrarian brilliance. I especially value the intellectual and personal rewards of friendship with Max Page, KathrynJay (nee johnson), Nick Breyfogle, Paul Howard, Ann Little, John Bezis-Selfa, Rosanne Adderley, Alison Isenberg, Marc Stein, Ed Baptist, Karim Tiro, Rose Beiler, Marian Winship, and Beth Clement. Thanks especially to Max, John, Alison, and Karim, who improved this book by reading portions of the manuscript. If one's peers are especially important to our development as scholars, I was twice blessed with all the early Americanists who were at the Philadelphia Center while I claimed it as my turf. I especially learned there from Tom Humphries, Roderick MeDonald , Simon Newman, Konstantine Dierks, Dallett Hemphill, Judy Van Buskirk, Cami Townsend, Greg Knouff, Susan Klepp, Leslie Patrick, Ed Larkin, Cynthia Van Zandt, William o 'Reilley, Billy Smith, and Wayne Bodle. I also benefited from careful readings of Chapter 2 by Greg and Francis S. Fox. Owen Ireland was a very generous reader of the manuscript for the University of Pennsylvania Press, and I was fortunate to have Bob Lockhart as my gentle editor at the Press. Dan Richter improved the entire work with his careful and insightful comments. Much of the evidence on which this book rests has been preserved in local and state historical societies, from the august Historical Society of Pennsylvania to one-room collections such as the Marx History Room at the Easton Public Library. They keep alive our ability to know the past, and most of them persevere with small budgets and decreasing public 352 Acknowledgments funding. Among the many staff people who made me feel at home in their collections, I especially thank David Fowler, formerly at the David Library of the American Revolution; Constance Cooper at the Historical Society of Delaware; Dan Jones at the New Jersey State Archives; Ann Upton, Diana Franzunoff Peterson, and Emma Lapsansky-Werner at the Quaker Collection, Haverford College;John Petersen at the Lutheran Theological Seminary; Mary F. Cordato at the American Bible Society Library and Archive; Joel Sartorius at the Free Library of Philadelphia; Jim Green, Phil Lapsansky, and John C. Van Horne at the Library Company of Philadelphia ; and Nancy Burkett, John B. Hench,Joanne Chaison, Caroline Sloat, Philip J. Lampi, S.J. Wolf, and Marie E. Lamoureaux at the American Antiquarian Society, with its stunning combination of material and human wealth. Since leaving the Delaware Valley, I have settled on the eastern frontier at the University of Maine, where I have been fortunate to join a splendid History Department. William TeBrake and Scott See have served as exemplary chairs committed to maintaining a department culture that values professionalism and collegiality in equal measure. My debts to colleagues are numerous: Scott stands out not only as a chair but also as a reader of chapters and a steadfast friend; Martha McNamara also gave insightful comments on several chapters and her rich friendship; and Richard Blanke kindly translated several German documents for me. My work as a scholar and a teacher would also be sharply limited without the ready support of my department's office staff, Suzanne Moulton and Ulrike Livingston . This book has been strengthened by what I learned from undergraduate and graduate students at Orono. In particular, doctoral candidate Scott Lanzendorf did yeoman's service to compile and analyze tables in the appendix, and Christian Lieb translated many Pennsylvania German newspapers. Many outside my department have also enriched this study, especially the participants in our interdisciplinary faculty writing group. Of course, lowe an important debt to the interlibrary loan office of Fogler Library and especially to Mel Johnson, reference librarian extraordinaire . Finally, I thank Ben Friedlander for his rewarding engagement with this book and as a collaborative, interdisciplinary teacher. His blue editing pencil has done its best to curb my desire to present many more details. Research grants and fellowships necessitate their own fundamental gratitude . The University of Pennsylvania awarded me fellowships that allowed me to discover the rewards of academic life both in...