Читать книгу Michael Walzer - J. Toby Reiner - Страница 5

I have been working on and thinking about Michael Walzer’s political thought for a long time – he was the subject of my PhD thesis, which I finished in 2011. More than a decade earlier, my undergraduate honors thesis used his notion of a dirty-hands dilemma to examine the war-crimes tribunal of Adolf Eichmann. In that time, I’ve acquired a lot of intellectual debts, to teachers, mentors, friends, and family.

Andrius Galisanka has read almost everything I’ve written in the last ten or twelve years, and his advice has been incredibly helpful. I’d also like to thank Richard Ashcroft, Jason Blakely, Nina Hagel, Tim Fisken, and Tacuma Peters for their friendship and for helpful comments along the way. David Watkins, Benjamin McKean, Marcus Agnafors, Amy Linch, Geoffrey Kurtz, Leonard Feldman, and especially George Owers gave me useful advice and suggestions about portions of this manuscript or the ideas that underlie it. Steve De Wijze – my undergraduate advisor – introduced me to Michael Walzer’s work in 1998. Among my other professors, I’d like to thank Mark Bevir, Sarah Song, Shannon Stinson, and Kinch Hoekstra. Support from Dickinson College has been particularly helpful, especially the sabbatical support that enabled me to finish research on the Dissent circle in the academic year 2015–2016.

I’d also like to thank Michael Walzer himself who lived up to his reputation for generosity by meeting with me on several occasions to discuss this project and helped me to set his ideas in their historical context.

My parents, Robert Reiner and Miriam David, were my first models of intellectual life, and the work of a professor, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without their love, mentorship, and guidance. My cats, Toasty and Couscous, helped me tremendously, reminding me at every opportunity that it was more important to feed them than to continue typing, sitting on my screen or arms if I forgot, and calming me with their purrs when the writing hit a roadblock.

Finally, my wife, Margaret Winchester, has helped me at every step of the way along the writing of this manuscript, read most of it, and is my constant support and companion. I dedicate this book to her, with love.