We would like to begin by cordially welcoming Merry Wiesner-Hanks as a new editor of JGH, and by warmly thanking Peer Vries, whom she replaces, for his contribution to the journal in its formative years.

In this issue of JGH, we are trying out two experimental novelties, and we would be interested in readers’ reactions to them. The first is the clustering of three articles, prefaced by a short editorial. This is a rather more flexible way of putting together related articles than a special issue, of which we intend to continue publishing one a year. We hope to publish more clusters in future issues, not necessarily deriving from one panel or workshop, as is the case with this one.

Our second innovation is to publish a discussion of an influential article that appeared earlier in JGH and that aroused considerable debate. Four sets of short comments are prefaced by an introduction and rejoinder by the original authors. We only envisage doing this when we feel that there is demand for it.

William G. Clarence-Smith and Kenneth Pomeranz