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Acknowledgments For a collection like this, with debts accumulating over a very long time, it is impossible to thank everyone who contributed intellectually, practically, and personally to the work. So I must here leave most of my expressions of grati‑ tude implicit but nonetheless heartfelt, while singling out a few people who have been constant through it all or who have particularly aided in the pro‑ duction of this volume. In the first category are those who got me going—​­ my departed parents, my first mentor Frank Bremer, my graduate adviser Alden Vaughan, my early guides Thad Tate and Mike McGiffert, and my prod‑ ding elder the late Francis Jennings—​­ along with those who sustained and challenged me, including my colleagues and students at Dickinson College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. In the second category are Roy Ritchie, who facilitated a wonderful year of work at the Huntington Library; Gregory Dowd and Nancy Shoe‑ maker, who provided thoughtful suggestions on the volume as a whole; Nor‑ een O'Connor-­ Abel, who shepherded the manuscript to completion; Laura Keenan Spero, Amy Baxter‑​­ Bellamy, and Barbara Natello, who kept the Mc‑ Neil Center and its director functioning; John Pollack and Nick Okrent, who kept the books and images flowing from Van Pelt Library; Mary and Richard Dunn and Michelle and Roderick McDonald, who kept the wine and good ideas pouring on Rittenhouse Square; and Bob Lockhart, who remained a prince among editors and collaborators, even if we seldom saw each other except when we were both on the road. Uniting both categories and countless others is my indomitable wife, Sharon, still with me after all these years. ...

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