Acknowledgements
This book, like most academic books, had to be written and rewritten a few times before reaching a publishable state. It began its life as a PhD dissertation under the wise and kind advisership of Professor Paul Cobb at the University of Pennsylvania. Paul was a constant source of support (when it was needed) and direct, helpful criticism (when it was needed). The seeds of this study would not have existed without him.
While I am thanking teachers, I would like to acknowledge a number of instructors past who helped shape me into the scholar I am today. So, with that in mind, I offer my thanks to Beth Montgomery, my 12th-grade AP European History teacher, who gave me a “zero” when I deserved one; Adrianne Krstansky, my undergraduate theatre professor at Brandeis University, who helped me learn how to interpret intention behind words; Reuven Amitai and Moshe Sharon, Islamic history professors at Hebrew University, who opened my eyes to the wonders of this field; and to Roger Allen, Joseph Lowry, Heather Sharkey, Jamal Elias, Jamal Ali, and Emad Rushdie, all of the University of Pennsylvania, who, along with Paul, helped me through graduate school and out the other side. I would be remiss if I did not mention Linda Greene, Peggy Guinan, and Diane Moderski, the combined heart and soul of Penn’s NELC department when I was enrolled. I would also like to acknowledge all of the colleagues with whom I have worked at Cornell College and Troy University for offering two marvelously collegial environments in which to produce scholarship. Special thanks to James Lindsay of Colorado State University, who has offered friendship, support, and wonderful conversation ever since I met him. He, and Suleiman Mourad of Smith College, were particularly helpful in the transition of this project from dissertation to monograph.
In the publication process, I am very grateful to the two reviewers, both of whom offered fair and helpful critiques. I did not agree with all of their suggestions, of course, but even the comments with which I disagreed pointed out weaknesses in my presentation. Teddi Dols, my publisher at Brill, has been helpful, communicative, and kind. My very patient copyeditor, Rebekah Zwanzig, has an astounding attention to detail and an eye for errata that rivals that of eagles.
There are others deserving special mention for their assistance and support of both me, and this project, in ways both tangible and intangible. These include Nathaniel Allen, Tam Baig, Scout Blum, Antoine Borrut, Cathy Bronson, Tim Buckner, Hal Fulmer, Allen Jones, Rob Kerr, Rabbi Scott Kramer, Sarah Gibson-Daly, Margaret Gnoinska, Windham Graves, Sarah Graves, Rob Kruckeberg, Joungbin Lim, Phil Lucas, Joe McCall, Martin Olliff, Elisabeth Palmer, Dan Puckett, Luke Ritter, Karen Ross, Kris Sanchack, Steven Taylor, Kathryn Tucker, Jay Valentine, Leslie Warden-Anderson, Kenny Whitlock, Adi Zarchi, and the people of Maverick Night and the Cloverdale Playhouse in Montgomery.
I take great joy in knowing that my grandparents, zichronam l’vrach, Ann and Sidney Edelman and Ernest and Norma Hagler, would all be proud of this book. My grandparents-in-law, Haim and Sara Bronshtein, treated me like a son from the moment they realized I was serious about their granddaughter, which is to say, from about two days after meeting me; I have never known anybody, anywhere, with greater determination and dedication to family than they had. My parents, James and Vivien, supported me (and continue to support me) in my various endeavors in life; thanks to them, I have the freedom to take risks and pursue a life that is meaningful to me. My children, Asher and Dina, motivate me to achieve and distract me from achievement in equal measure (I am grateful for both). Last, but not least, I would like to thank my wife, Elana Hagler, for too many things to mention; if I were to start listing the ways I am grateful for her, it might make the binding of this book unwieldy. I have learned much from her, but of all the things I could mention, the most relevant is the first time I saw her work for days on a section of a painting and then, ultimately dissatisfied with the outcome, scrape off her work with a palette knife, sandpaper it down, and start on that section anew, without even a small hesitation. Her example kept me from becoming disheartened when, inevitably, I needed to do the same with a section of text and the delete key.
The standard disclaimer naturally applies. Although I am indebted to the brilliant work of a number of great scholars, none of them bears any responsibility for any possible errors I have made.