am extremely grateful to each of you for your sense of adventure,
generosity, and openness. I hope you will find your trust in me was
deserved.
The start of the project was facilitated by a small grant from the
University Committee for Research in the Social Sciences and the
Humanities, Princeton University. The bulk of the research was sup-
ported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES-
0096880). The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research also sup-
ported my time when I worked on the book. I want to acknowledge
the special colleagueship of the CIFAR Successful Societies research
group over these past five years, especially the input of Peter A. Hall,
Natalie Zemon Davis, Bill Sewell, Ann Swidler, and Jonathan Arac on
this particular project.
A first draft of the manuscript was written while I was a fellow
at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, under
a fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (grant no.
29800639). The book manuscript was completed while I held the
Matina Horner Distinguished Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study. As was the case at the CASBS, Radcliffe pro-
vided the ideal combination of intellectual stimulation and uninter-
rupted time I needed to work on this book. I want to single out the
stimulating friendships that kept me going during these leaves. I
thank particularly Jane Burbank, Fred Cooper, and Peter Gourevitch
in Palo Alto, and Bruce Carruthers and Wendy Espeland at Radcliffe.
I have been very fortunate in being surrounded by a number of
kindred spirits as I conceptualized the project, conducted interviews,
and worked on the book manuscript. The most central presence
was that of my colleagues, research assistants, and friends Joshua
Guetzkow (now assistant professor at the University of Arizona) and
Grégoire Mallard (now assistant professor at Northwestern Univer-
sity). Josh contributed to this project in all the various phases of the
research. His judicious comments and his kindness enriched the
Acknowledgments / 317