ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’ve never liked asking for help. I grew up in a small Oregon logging town, where you were supposed to figure out everything on your own. That approach doesn’t work for writers. I don’t think it ever worked for anyone in my hometown anyway. I only regret that I don’t have room to thank everyone who made this book happen.

Money matters. When I was a graduate student, my credit card provided some of the funding for this project. I’m still paying it off. Thankfully, I eventually found the necessary institutional support for research travel. I received a Dean’s Travel Grant while at the University of Mary Washington. Start-up funds from Texas Tech University allowed for long trips to Michigan. A fellowship from the Humanities Center at Texas Tech provided a course release that gave me time to write for a semester.

At the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library, archivists and staff pulled countless boxes and put many miles on their cars while retrieving boxes from an old Ann Arbor fire station. Thank you for putting up with me when I returned year after year.

The Journal of Policy History allowed me to use part of an article I wrote in 2017. Thank you to Donald Critchlow and the peer reviewers who gave me important feedback that improved that article and this book.

I never anticipated the importance of choosing the right publisher. I’m glad I met Michael McGandy at Cornell University Press. Michael supported this project long before it looked anything like a book and continued his support as I struggled along. Jonathan Zimmerman provided the right balance of enthusiasm, humor, and constructive criticism to keep me going. They also chose peer reviewers who took the time to provide pages of thoughtful feedback. Thank you for making this book better.

At Texas Tech University, I found a rare group of colleagues who went out of their way to support me. I wish I could thank all my friends in the department, but a few people, in particular, read drafts of chapters: Emily Skidmore, Jacob Baum, Erin-Marie Legacey, Benjamin Poole, Karlos Hill, Paul Bjerk, Zachary Brittsan, and Sarah Keyes. As luck would have it, another colleague, Laura Calkins, was involved in the famous affirmative action lawsuits at the University of Michigan and lent her insight whenever I needed it.

At the University of Mary Washington, I learned how to be an academic through trial and fire. Thank you, Jeffrey McClurken, Will Mackintosh, Jason Sellers, Nora Kim, and Marion Sanford for your friendship and guidance.

This book began more than a decade ago at Temple University. I’m thankful for the people I met in Philadelphia. Abigail Perkiss, Alessandra Phillips, Timothy Cole, and Ben Brandenberg read my clumsy writing over coffee. The fellows at Temple’s Center for the Humanities offered support and important feedback on my earliest drafts. Heather Ann Thompson helped organize my ideas into a coherent narrative at a critical moment. Bryant Simon asked hard questions, many of which I didn’t find answers to until years later.

David Farber and Beth Bailey deserve much of the credit for this book. They saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. Thank you for teaching me what it means to be a historian. I’ll spend the rest of my career paying your generosity forward.

Finally, thank you to my partner, Lindsay. She gave me the love and support I so desperately needed during the hard times, when I struggled to find my voice. Just a few months ago a baby entered our lives. Avery is sleeping on my chest as I write this. I can only hope that she grows up in a world better than the one I write about in the preceding pages.