Acknowledgments
This project began when my then-department chair Robert J. Lacey encouraged me to apply for sabbatical in 2018–2019. I was in residence at the New York Historical Society (NYHS) when I completed revisions for this book, with generous support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
Owen Temby offered encouraging feedback to an early chapter draft at the 2019 New England Political Science Association (NEPSA) conference in Portland, Maine. James Busumtwi-Sam encouraged me to address the nonwestern cities more fully at the 2019 International Studies Association (ISA) conference in Accra, Ghana. Zachary Shirkey, a fellow enthusiast of ancient world politics, read a draft of Chapter 1 at the 2022 NEPSA in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Mats Berglund led a lively discussion in response to Chapter 11 at the 2022 European Association of Urban History (EUAH) in Antwerp, Belgium. Alison Suen offered detailed responses to Chapter 6. I took most of their advice, and value their unique perspectives.
A very special thank you to Lucy Rhymer, Rosa Martin, and the team at Cambridge University Press, along with three anonymous reviewers for their detailed insights.
I was delighted at William A. Dorman’s vocal encouragement midway through the project. Sadly, Bill passed away in 2022. As he would say, keep on keeping on. My mentors Orfeo Fioretos, Patrick Cannon, Mark A. Pollack, and Bahman Fozouni continue to influence my thinking in anything I write. This book attempts to follow their lofty examples.
My departmental colleagues – Robert J. Lacey, Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, Mary Hagerty, Ceceli Chadwick, and Jeff Sherman – are simply the best. The same goes for my campus colleagues Bhaswati Sengupta, Alison Suen, Joshua R. Klein, and Alice Kelly, my colleague at NYHS. All of them endured countless conversations about pre-modern cities, responding with ideas, moral support, and unwavering positivity. A reading group organized by the artist collective Archeology of the Frivolous kept discussion alive during the pandemic shutdowns.
The New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Marli program offered special access to the NYPL’s vast research collection, as well as the main libraries at NYU and Columbia University. Iona University’s small but excellent library was tremendously helpful. Special thanks to the many librarians at these institutions whose work made this research possible.
Café Ines on the Upper East Side offered a welcoming space to work.
Several friends and family read drafts, responding with lively conversations. My wife, Erin L. Leon, read every word of every draft, copy reading and offering valuable suggestions from the beginning. Together we explored archeological sites and museums all over the world, to see and feel the lost worlds that inhabit this book.
