Eric W. Sager
I did not expect to publish a book towards the end of the eighth decade of my life. And if you had asked me, ten years ago, whether I would write a book about the meaning of history, I would have declared such a thing to be impossible. In retirement, however, I found myself determined to try to answer basic questions about the scholarly discipline that has absorbed my life. The project was at first entirely for my own edification. As I proceeded, I was persuaded that there might be something of interest to others, and so I decided to seek a publisher, and to persist with the search despite rejections. The story of what follows says something about rewards for persistence, and perhaps also something about our relationship with publishers – a relationship in which we historians may have more influence than we may realize.
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