Acknowledgments
As with all intellectual enterprises, a book arises in the midst of many conversations. I am grateful for those who have engaged with this project. My colleagues in the history department, African American Studies program, and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies program at the University of Montana have offered unwavering encouragement and insightful feedback. I am especially thankful for splendid interlocutors like Robert Greene, Anya Jabour, Mike Mayer, Jody Pavilack, Kyle Volk, and Jeff Wiltse. During his all-too-brief sojourn with us before heading back to New York, Christopher Pastore also provided excellent counsel about the craft of writing itself. The provost’s office at UM awarded me a sabbatical to complete this manuscript, and the University Research and Creativity Committee funded a trip to the Northeast during which I visited multiple archives and encountered some of my most important sources. Peter Staudenmaier, Geeta Raval, my brother Jud Shearer, and his partner, Sue Ann Foster, provided wonderful hospitality each evening after I was done flitting from archive to archive during the day.
Scholars in the fields of childhood and environmental history have been incredibly helpful—Pamela Riney-Kehrberg and Barry Ross Muchnick provided especially astute feedback—as have colleagues in the Afro-American Religious History group of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The 2014 Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy in Jackson, Mississippi, also provided conversation partners and interlocutors extraordinaire. Special thanks go to Jeff Kolnick, Barry Lee, Jolie Sheffer, Jervette Ward, and Dwana Waugh for their particularly insightful commentary. Courtney Bender, Josef Sorett, and participants in the Religion and Politics in American Public Life lecture series at Columbia University provided me with the opportunity to develop key components of my argument for a lecture there. In the same way, lecture invitations from Provost Fred Kniss at Eastern Mennonite University and Stacy Keogh George from Whitworth University allowed me to hone the interpretive frame I have employed in this book.
The archivists and librarians at the institutions listed in the appendix have been unfailingly supportive. In particular, Linnea Anderson at the Elmer L. Andersen Library, Simone Horst at the Menno Simons Historical Library, Wayne Kempton at the archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and John Thiesen at the Mennonite Library and Archives of Bethel College provided essential support. The staff of UM’s interlibrary loan department also served above and beyond the call of duty. I likewise owe a debt of gratitude for the on-site assistance offered by Andrew Jungclaus at Columbia University, Ian Lewenstein at the University of Minnesota, and James Ward at the Library of Virginia when I could not travel in person to these collections. James Lont organized and recorded a conversation of former Fresh Air hosts in Graafschap, Michigan, after only one phone call from me. And Molly Williams, my intrepid work-study student from 2013 through 2015, diligently assisted me in the tedious task of documenting Fresh Air hosting locations.
I am furthermore thankful for all those who spoke with my colleagues and me about various Fresh Air experiences. They were unfailingly forthcoming, honest, and courageous in relating stories that were, in many cases, difficult to tell.
My editors at Cornell—Brian Balogh, Michael J. McGandy, and Jonathan Zimmerman—have been steadfastly professional, consistently perceptive, and more percipient than I sometimes wished (although I always came to appreciate their feedback).
Two additional groups have earned my deep gratitude. First, the members of our weekly supper club—now meeting in its eighth year—have offered delicious food, spirited conversation, and tons of teasing. I don’t know what I would do without you all—Beth and Britta Baker, Brad Clough, Julie and Steve Edwards, Mark and Kara Hansen, Clary Loisel, and Ken Thompson. Finally, I am ever grateful for the support, encouragement, and droll badinage that my life partner, Cheryl, and our two sons—Dylan and Zach—brought to me in the midst of writing this book. They kept me grounded, balanced, and laughing out loud.