Editors’ Note and Acknowledgments

This volume stems from papers presented at a workshop and symposium sponsored by the Center for Early Modern History during spring semester 2003. For the most part, the initial papers were working papers, discussed in a graduate seminar, one of many intellectual exchanges resulting from the events of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The essays in this volume represent a refinement of those ideas and discussions.

Institutional support for this volume and for the workshop and symposium was provided by the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts and its Special Events Fund; a Title VI grant administered by the U of M’s Institute for Global Studies; and the Department of History.

We would like to thank the following students, both undergraduate and graduate, who helped with the events in 2003 and with the production of this volume. They include: Emily Barth, Sara Cammeresi, and Jamie Rae Bluestone.

Most importantly, the editors owe a debt of gratitude to our contributors for their patience. The Center for Early Modern History decided, in 2004, to launch its own publication series, Minnesota Studies in Early Modern History. All new enterprises take a while to get off the ground and this one was no exception. We thank our contributors most sincerely for their willingness to update their papers. Religious differences, and the ways in which societies cope with them, continue to be a major factor in understanding the world, both past and present. We believe the papers presented here contribute significantly to that effort.