xxvi ★ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
quizzes and outlines; Sarah England Bartley, Steve Dunn, and Mike Wright
for their alert reads of the U.S. survey market and their hard work in helping
establish Give Me Liberty! within it; and Drake McFeely, Roby Harrington, and
Julia Reidhead for maintaining Norton as an independent, employee- owned
publisher dedicated to excellence in its work.
Many students may have heard stories of how publishing companies
alter the language and content of textbooks in an attempt to maximize sales
and avoid alienating any potential reader. In this case, I can honestly say
that W. W. Norton allowed me a free hand in writing the book and, apart from
the usual editorial corrections, did not try to influence its content at all. For
this I thank them, while I accept full responsibility for the interpretations pre-
sented and for any errors the book may contain. Since no book of this length
can be entirely free of mistakes, I welcome readers to send me corrections at
[email protected].
My greatest debt, as always, is to my family— my wife, Lynn Garafola,
for her good- natured support while I was preoccupied by a project that con-
sumed more than its fair share of my time and energy, and my daughter, Daria,
who while a ninth and tenth grader read every chapter as it was written and
offered invaluable suggestions about improving the book’s clarity, logic, and
grammar.
Eric Foner
New York City
July 2016