Arnaud Blin - War and Religion: Europe and the Mediterranean from the First through the Twenty-first Centuries

Not many publishers would have taken the risk of accepting a manuscript on a topic as complex and sensitive as this one, and so the first person I must thank is Reed Malcolm of the University of California Press. Reed believed in the project from the start and entrusted me with bringing it to fruition. From there, he followed the process from beginning to end, encouraged me when I needed it, and helped me clear the obstacles that popped up along the way. Without Reed, this book might never have taken off, and it would have had difficulty landing when it had. The editorial team at the University of California Press was professional to the core and ensured that the transmutation from manuscript to book was a smooth process. Archna Patel steered me efficiently and patiently through the process as Cindy Fulton took the book through the various stages of production. The final draft of the manuscript had the good fortune of being entrusted to Peter Dreyer for copyediting. Peters extraordinary depth of knowledge, formidable experience, and uncompromising rigor no doubt contributed dramatically to elevate the quality of the text.

Great thanks must also go to Kristie Bliss and Grard Chaliand. The job of the historian is to make sure that his or her material is not too difficult to digest, and, to this end, form is as central as substance. Kristie painstakingly read the various iterations of this long manuscript. Her mastery and love of the English language, as well as her tireless attention to detail, enabled me to steer clear of stylistic pitfalls and to resist excessive digressions. She made sure I kept the text as fluid as possible, essential given the bulk of information. Grard Chaliand is one of the few people on earth with the breadth of knowledge, as well as the command and capacity, to evaluate a topic as multifaceted and extensive as this one so thoroughly. Grards detailed comments, suggestions, and criticisms were invaluable, and his intellectual support was much appreciated. My thanks also go to the anonymous evaluators whose acute and penetrating comments helped make this text a lot more focused and solid than was the case with the initial draft. Last, but not least, my sincere thanks to Nicolas Rageau who, once again, worked his cartographic magic and brought life to the complex maps I asked him to produce.