Honor Bound: Race and Shame in America

Acknowledgments

Among the many people whose conversations and e-mails have provoked fresh research and rethinking during the last eight years, I’m particularly indebted to Joanne Braxton, Bill Hardwig, Jonathan Holloway, Evelin Lindner, Deborah McDowell, Susan Petit, Vivian Pollak, Stephen Rachman, Andrew Reynolds, Riché Richardson, and Malini Schueller. I’m especially grateful to Ed White for conversations about Benedict Anderson and for alerting me to Article 11 of the 1797 treaty with Tripoli. Bertram Wyatt-Brown generously read one of the later drafts and gave me detailed commentary on each chapter. Gordon Hutner’s astute assessment of an article draft for American Literary History persuaded me that I should write a book instead. The book benefited from stimulating audiences at the American Literature Association’s conventions in 2007 and 2010, a University of Florida symposium in 2009, the Human Dignity and Humiliation Society’s conference in 2009, and the Modern Language Association’s convention in 2010. Leslie Mitchner’s enthusiasm for the project has been crucial, and she sent the manuscript to just the right reader, whose report pushed me toward clearer framings. Her own page-by-page reading of a penultimate draft gave me innumerable pointers and suggestions, such as changing Samuel Huntington’s “quiet desperation” to “noisy desperation.” She has been an ideal editor. Thanks also to Marilyn Campbell, Katie Keeran, Marilyn Schwartz, and Lisa Boyajian for their helpful expertise. Kate Babbitt has been an exceptionally careful and resourceful copyeditor. She improved every page, and she made me improve almost every page. Finally, thanks to Rachel Nishan for careful indexing. More generally, conversations with Steven Feierman have sustained me for two decades. I also thank the Gang—Diana and Richard Brantley, A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S ix x acknowledgments Mary and Jim Twitchell, and Elise and Rod Webb—for many evenings of candor and raucous humor, and some shared adventuring too. Elise suggested a tempting title, “Talking Smack in America: We Are Not as Idiotic as We Used to Be.”Among our four wonderful children and their spouses, Nell Rutledge-Leverenz gave a keen reading of an earlier, much lengthier introduction, and Jim Marion suggested my subtitle. Conversations with Nell, Jim, Allison Rutledge-Parisi, Elizabeth Parisi, Tim O’Brien, Trevor Rutledge-Leverenz, and Shannon Kenny sparked many ideas about race and recent politics. Elizabeth, a creative art director at Scholastic Press, and Tim, who is an internationally known illustrator, designed the cover, both for love. Check him out at obrienillustration. com. He said the title should simply say “Race: It’s Complicated.” As my dedication implies, Anne Rutledge remains my chum, my soulmate, and my anchor to practically everything. Until the book was accepted, I wouldn’t let her read any of the drafts, because she would have derailed my fitful momentum by spotting all the faulty transitions and imprecise phrasings. When she read what I thought was my final draft of the introduction, she flagged problematic phrasings in every paragraph. Unfortunately I only took most of her advice. Throughout she has been my skeptical sounding board for ideas and some fifty or sixty titles. She also keeps reminding me that life is about living, not just books. honor bound  ...