In the fall of 1990 Jay Hullett approached me with a proposal for a major anthology of classic texts in the Western traditions of moral and political theory. At every stage, this has been a collegial and cooperative effort. Jay has supervised our work with sensitivity and wisdom; Brian Rak has been a thoughtful and meticulous editor. Dan Kirklin has guided the production process with tremendous attention to detail, constant encouragement, and a great understanding of our goals.
In making my editorial selections I was aided by a number of friends and colleagues—Jeff Isaac, Paul Eisenberg, Milton Fisk—but especially by Brian Rak, with his keen sense for what is used and what is useful in the teaching of ethics and political theory. In preparing the introductions I benefited from a vast amount of biographical, historical, and philosophical work. Jim Tully read all the introductions and made copious recommendations, virtually all of which I accepted and which directed me to avoid infelicities and inaccuracies. Gillian Parker read text and proofs as we tried to make the result as accurate as possible, and Mark Rooks of InteLex provided many texts on disk and scanned others, in order to facilitate the publication process. Audrey, Debbie, Sara, and our two cats, Blaze and Amanda, endured a good deal less attention than they deserved, sympathizing as I worried about deadlines and providing encouragement and distraction as needed.