“It's about time.” These words were inscribed in a card given to me by my cohorts and professors upon successfully clarifying my dissertation proposal in 1996. The inscription was intended as a bit of good-natured ribbing and word play, but it was prophetic, for this book has taken far too long to write. It began its life as my doctoral dissertation, written at the University of Washington under the capable and supportive supervision of Professors S. Marc Cohen, David Keyt, Jean Roberts, and Cass Weller. I defended the dissertation in 1999, and since that time I have subjected it to prolonged and radical surgery: superfluous sections have been excised, essential but missing arguments and analyses have been added, and the remaining original material has been improved (or so I hope) in various ways.

Even though the final product bears a weak resemblance to its original incarnation, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the individuals mentioned above, not only for their help in writing the dissertation, but also for their unwavering kindness and friendship.

I am profoundly grateful for the material support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provided a Summer Stipend in 2005 to work toward the completion of this book. I wish I could have lived up to my optimistic projections for finishing it around that time, but I am confident that it is better for the extra attention it has received in the interim.