IN MY FIRST BOOK I emphasized the paramount contribution of my teachers to my work. While their influence continues, and Professor Jacob Goldberg continues to be of active help, this time around critical input has come from colleagues in two main contexts. The first is the lively interchange that takes place formally on the Israeli academic conference circuit and informally in and around the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem and at Bar Ilan University where I teach. The many opportunities I have had to hear and present lectures and to discuss with colleagues topics relating to this book constitute an extended postgraduate seminar.

The second context is the University of Michigan, where I spent the spring 1989 semester as a guest of the History Department and the Frankel Center for Jewish Studies. There I learned about developments in historical thinking and writing that changed my perspective, influenced my style, and made me explore new approaches to research and writing. I thank Todd Endelman, then director of the Frankel Center, for making this experience possible.

My students have prompted me to formulate in coherent form many of the components of the analysis contained here. They have asked questions, pointed to contradictions, and demanded that I refine my thinking.

In a more specific way, I am grateful to the staffs of the Biblioteka Czartoryskich in Cracow, the Archiwum Glowne Akt Dawnych in Warsaw, the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine and the Vernadsky Library Jewish Division, both in Kiev, the Central Archive for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem, the University of Michigan Graduate Library in Ann Arbor, the Bar Ilan University Library, the Jewish National and University Library, and the Gershom Scholem Collection for all of their help. Yuri Khoderkovsky of Kiev drew the maps.

Chapter 5 is a significant revision and enlargement of “Social Conflicts in Miedzybóz in the Generation of the Besht,” in Hasidism Reappraised, ed. A. Rapoport-Albert, published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Oxford, 1995).

Daniel Boyarín took a special interest in my research and worked with integrity to have it published. Stanley Holwitz, Michelle Bonnice, Diana Feinberg, Sheila Berg, Susie Guttman, and the rest of the staff of the University of California Press have shown a sincere—and appreciated—concern for the project and have done their best to have it appear in a worthy form.