| I feel fortunate that we no longer imprison debtors, for I have acquired far more obligations in producing these essays than I can hope to repay. A number of these are of the monetary sort: at various times in the past decade and a half, my work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the American Philosophical Society, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University, and the Faculty Senate at the University of California at San Diego. Such funding has been particularly crucial during the past ten years, when my residence in southern California has placed me at a considerable distance from the archives I regularly need to consult for my research. I am exceedingly grateful to all these institutions for their help, and hope they view this book as some (modest) recompense for their generosity. |
| My intellectual and personal debts are still more numerous, so much so that it is perhaps invidious to mention particular individuals. Still, I cannot entirely forebear. William Bynum, Roy Porter, and the staff of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine have provided me with a home away from home, stimulating intellectual company, and access to the unrivaled riches of their library during my insufficiently frequent stays in London. Lawrence Stone was enormously helpful and supportive during my year at the Center he directs, notwithstanding his strong intellectual disagreements with some of my work; and Charles Rosenberg, Gerald Grob, and David Rothman have been similarly gracious over the years. Finally, having elected to call myself a sociologist, I have been lucky enough, over the past ten years, to find myself a member of a department that takes history seriously, one that has not |
|
