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ix Years go by while a person labors over a book like this, about six years in this case, a significant chapter in a lifetime. I am extremely grateful to those who supported me along the way, contributed ideas, and made the often solitary journey less lonely. This project has been generously supported by the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, the College of Liberal Studies (CLS) and my home department, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. A CLS Sabbatical Grant, a UW–La Crosse Faculty Research Grant, a UW–La Crosse Faculty Development Grant, a CLS Small Grant, crucial release time from teaching, and an atmosphere of constant encouragement in my department made this book possible. I want to especially thank Dean Ruthann Benson and my department chair, Deb Hoskins. At an institution with a heavy teaching load, it is a rare faculty member whose department chair asks her, “What do you really need to get this book done?” and then works with the dean to make it happen. Deb’s leadership and dedication to genuinely supporting the work of her colleagues are incomparable. I also appreciate the support of Rima Apple, whose work I have admired for many years and whose perceptive critiques, suggestions, and kind encouragement of this project came at critical junctures. Special thanks, too, to Andrea O’Reilly and the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI). Andrea’s leadership of MIRCI and her personal collegiality have nurtured my thinking about mothering and motherhood for more than a decade. Dr. Apple’s and Dr. O’Reilly’s works inform this book, as do the works of several generations of scholars whose names are scattered throughout my endnotes. This book is a tribute to the collective work of great historical and feminist minds, and I hope I have done them some justice in these pages. Among these scholars, a special note of thanks to Sara M. Evans, my Ph.D. adviser, who originally gave me a model of accessible historical writing, and to Norman Rosenberg, Peter Rachleff, James Stewart, and Emily Rosenberg, who first taught me how to think historically. Thanks also for the expertise of Leslie Mitchner, my editor at Rutgers University Press, who saw the potential of this book immediately and supported its development along the way. Acknowledgments x Acknowledgments Special thank yous, as well, to Adi Hovav and Lisa Jerry, both of whom lent their significant talents as professional editors to the manuscript, improving it in many substantial ways. It is especially humbling to sit down and thank the many people in my life who have carefully and generously read chapters and offered thoughtful and immensely helpful suggestions. Friend and colleague readers include Beth Cherne, Jaralee Richter, Louise Edwards-Simpson, Mahurq Khan, Elise Denlinger, Deb Hoskins, Christina Haynes, Terry Lilley, Sanna Yoder, as well as a number of members of the History Author Working Group (HAWG.) Over several years, HAWG provided me an encouraging and intellectually challenging space to workshop chapters as they evolved. Special thanks goes to HAWG member James Longhurst, whose keen editorial eye shaped this manuscript in many places, to Marti Lybeck, whose sense of the historical big picture is unparalleled, to Víctor Macías-González, who directed me to numerous resources and provided editorial advice and encouragement , and to Jennifer Trost, who kindly helped me with additional grant-seeking for the project. Thanks, too, to kind departmental colleagues Andrea Hansen, Terry Langteau, James R. Parker, and Nizam Arain, to long-term career mentor, Sandi Krajewski, and to the many people across the UW–La Crosse campus who encouraged me in the process. I am very appreciative of the work of librarian Jenifer Holman, whose expertise proved invaluable throughout the research process, and to Saundra Solum for technical assistance. I am also grateful for the talents of Kelly Nussbaum , historical research assistant par excellence, and Taylor Goodine, whose skills with the English language made this a much better book. And thanks to all my hundreds of students of women’s history and the history of motherhood. Without their energy, ideas, and questions, this book would be much less rich and interesting . I also want to especially thank Elise Denlinger for sharing her family history with me and with the book’s readers and, while I’m at it, for years of friendship and support for all my endeavors. And thanks to my many friends at Jule’s Coffee House, where the vast majority of this book was written...

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