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acknoWledGMenTs i have benefited from the professional and personal help of a wealth of individuals and organizations in completing this book. i am forever indebted to the assistance and guidance of archivists in repositories across the united states (and not just in california, where i had imagined i would be spending all my time when i started the project). in particular, i would like to thank david Kessler and the team at the Bancroft library at the university of california at Berkeley; the staff at the california state archives, sacramento; carolyn Hanneman and erin sloan at the carl albert center, university of oklahoma; Bob clark at the Fdr library; rebekah Kim at the GlBt Historical society in san Francisco; catherine Powell at the labor archives and research center at san Francisco state university; the staff at the southern california library for social studies and research in los angeles, at the seeley G. Mudd library at Princeton university, and at the Hoover institution at stanford university; and the archivists at the archives of the london school of economics and cambridge university library. My research would not have been possible without the financial assistance of research councils, research institutions, and organizations on both sides of the atlantic. The arts and Humanities research council awarded me a grant to allow me to concentrate fully on writing the manuscript. i received financial assistance for conducting research and attending conferences from the British academy. i was also awarded research grants from the carl albert center and from the Fdr library. i also benefited from generous support from my own institution, the university of reading, including travel expenses from my department and buy-out from teaching provided by the Faculty of arts and Humanities. i am grateful to them all for keeping me solvent over the years it has taken me to complete this project. although the ideas and arguments in this book are my own, they would have been considerably less developed and rather less convincingly expressed without the aid of scholars and friends who went way beyond the call of duty in responding to my frequent cries for help. John Thompson, already no acknowledgments 342 stranger to my convoluted prose and half-developed thought patterns, read the entire manuscript and helped me sharpen my ideas, a task he undertook with good humor and characteristic rigor. doug rossinow, appointed initially as an anonymous reviewer for the press, revealed his identity and generously shared ideas and read reworked chapters for me; his keen eye for the big picture and infectious enthusiasm kept me motivated in the later stages of bringing the project to completion. nelson lichtenstein, robert Mason, and iwan Morgan read individual chapters and helped me make them better. nelson also invited me to speak at his labor History seminar at ucsB in 2007, an experience i found both useful and invigorating. Gareth davies encouraged me to think about the legal aspects of political change, and gave me research material he had dug up that proved very useful. i am grateful to colleagues who invited me to speak at seminars or to join conference panels where i could talk about my work, or who showed interest in my ideas in chats and discussions over recent years, including Josh Zeitz, tony Badger, liz cohen, don critchlow, robert Mason, iwan Morgan, ellie shermer, richard lowitt, axel schäfer, Matt Worley, Bruce schulman, tim stanley, tom Packer, Bill rorabaugh, eileen Boris, lindy Graham, alice o’connor, richard Bosworth, ethan Blue, Michael ondaatje, and Martin Meeker. Bob lockhart at the university of Pennsylvania Press showed interest in my work from an early stage, and his commitment to adding my project to such a distinguished series is something for which i am very grateful. i also thank the series editors, Glenda Gilmore, Michael Kazin, and tom sugrue, for their enthusiasm for my work, and all the staff at the press who have worked to turn a rough manuscript into a finished product. i could not have completed the book without the hospitality and friendship of so many who put up with my constant demands for a bed for the night, a drinking partner, someone to talk political history with, or general emotional sustenance while i worked. Friends in the united states who provided help, accommodation, and a vital link to the outside world when i was away from home include andrew Keating, david Weinreich, doug ostertag , anne routon, andrew carter, david Murphy, nathan Weintraub, John Maull, Monika collins, chris Vanderstouwe...

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