Jonathan Lyons - The Society for Useful Knowledge: How Benjamin Franklin and Friends Brought the Enlightenment to America

Benjamin Franklin placed the social element at the very center of his conception of useful knowledge, so I am particularly delighted to note that the knowledge production on these pages represents something of a cooperative effort. Like Franklin, I, too, benefited from the opportunity to try out my ideas on a diverse group of talented friends, associates, and colleagues.

Foremost, I want to thank Michelle Johnson for her steady hand as reader, adviser, and companion throughout this journey. Cecile Baril, Evelyn Lyons, and Bryce Johnson read early iterations of the manuscript and provided helpful comments along the way. Kevin Cross shared many pleasant hours over mussels and beer discussing theoretical and practical aspects of useful knowledge. Lewis Lapham contributed helpful leads and provided welcome enthusiasm for the project from the outset.

Also, I want to thank my longtime agent, Will Lippincott, for once again helping me realize the promise hidden in the original conception, as well as my editors at Bloomsbury Press, Peter Ginna and Pete Beatty, for the support, advice, and close reading of the manuscript needed to see this project through to fruition. Needless to say, the final results and any errors of omission or commission remain firmly my own doing.

Jonathan Lyons is the author of The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism, and Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century Iran (co-authored with Geneive Abdo). He served as editor and foreign correspondent for Reuters for more than twenty years. He holds a doctorate in sociology, and has taught at George Mason University, Georgetown University, and Monash University in Australia. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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