| I have been working on this book for many years, and during those years important methodological and theoretical discussions have been reshaping the writing of working-class history. I am keenly aware of how much my thinking and writing owes to the many people who have been participating in this broad discussion. I cannot imagine having written this book without help from and conversations or even arguments with many individuals and groups who have worked with me on one aspect or another of it over the past decade. I thank first those who read the entire manuscript (in some cases, more than once)Barbara Laslett, Eric Weitz, Mark Traugott, Ron Aminzade, Allen Isaacman, andJohn Gillis, as well as three anonymous reviewers. These readers will, I trust, recognize their stamp upon this book (even if I did not make all the changes they asked for). Many others provided timely and important feedback on conference papers or other earlier drafts of chapters, among them Birgitte Soland, Sara Evans, Barbara Hanawalt, Geoff Eley, Louise Tilly, George Steinmetz, William Sewell, Michael Hanagan, Susan Cahn, and Liz Faue. The members of the Personal Narratives Group affiliated with the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota contributed in many ways; this project really emerged from my working with them. Members of the History and Society Program, also at Minnesota, and the European Fertility Decline Working Group, the interdisciplinary audiences who have commented on parts of this project over the years at meetings of the Social Science History Association, and, most recently, participants in Minnesota's Comparative Women's History Workshop all deserve acknowledgment, as do the students who have given me feedback on chapters in history department seminars over the past half-dozen years. Birgitte Soland and Matt Sobek were there when it started, as invaluable research assistants. For helpful suggestions and correspondence early on, my thanks go to Daniel Bertaux and Philippe Lejeune. Finally, sometimes the right conversation at a decisive moment has been the key to my resolving a challenging problem; for such conversations, I thank in particular Barbara Laslett, Ann Waltner, Ulrike Strasser, Gianna Pomata, Ron Aminzade, and Liz Faue. |
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1995