ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank a few of the many people who have helped me in the course of this study. Patrick Fridenson taught me, as he has so many scholars, how to navigate in the archives of twentieth-century France. His encouragement more than once gave me the courage to persevere at the frontiers of public access. Charles Tilly offered useful advice about how to proceed when I embarked on the project. Tony Judt, Lynn Hunt, Robert Paxton, and George Ross all read the entire manuscript at crucial points in its preparation. The book is much the better for their criticism, even as its shortcomings remain my own.

This study began as a doctoral dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley, where my dissertation director, Gerald Feldman, provided wise counsel while encouraging me to follow my own convictions in shaping the work. Reginald Zelnick gave the dissertation an unusually close reading, which helped me enormously in revising the manuscript, as did the suggestions of James Sheehan and Paul Robinson from Stanford University. I have also benefited from friends and colleagues who read drafts or offered advice about how to work with my sources. I wish particularly to thank Susanna Barrows, Barton Bernstein, Stephen Cohen, Patrick Fridenson, Gene Goldenfeld, Dena Goodman, Richard Kuisel, Joby Margadant, Ted Margadant, Walter McDougall, Aimée Moutet, Karen Offen, Catherine Omnès, Steve Owen, Paul Rabinow, Bill Reddy, and Michael Seidman.

Research on industrial life in a recent period in the French past depends entirely on the patience and support of busy archivists, labor officials, and business executives willing to offer guidance, open doors, and make materials accessible. I wish especially to thank Pierre Cézard, Yvonne Poulle, and Christine Pétillat at the Archives Nationales; General Charles Christienne and M. Lechoix at the Service Historique del'Armée de l'Air; Claude Lévy at the Comité d'Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale; Marie-Geneviève Chevignard at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques; Annie Benhamou-Hirtz at the Union des Industries Métallurgiques et Minières; René Huot-Marchand and Claude Bresson at the Groupement des Industries Françaises Aéronautiques et Spatiales; Claude Acker, Mme. Tubolique, and M. Delacarte at Aérospatiale; General Pierre Gallois at the Société Marcel Dassault; General de Bordas at the Fondation pour les Etudes de la Défense Nationale; Jeff Apter and Denise Rosencwajg at the CGT; M. Imont and Mme. Berthier at the Fédération des Travailleurs de la Métallurgie; Jacques Delys and Robert Corsin at the Comité Central d'Entreprise of SNECMA; Edouard Pivotsky and Henri Rieu at the Union des Syndicats des Travailleurs de la Métallurgie in Toulouse; Roger Martelli at the Institut de Recherches Marxistes; Agnes Peterson and Helen Solanum at the Hoover Institution; and John Taylor at the National Archives of the United States.

A number of persons and institutions have offered special assistance along the way. John Barzman shared valuable archival material on Le Havre. Emmanuel Chadeau led me to several sources and generously shared his insights about some of the common ground we explored. Jennie Kiesling took valuable time out from her own archival diggings to track down photographs. Michelle Harrison assisted in the research. Lori Cole helped read the proofs. Norman Rubin provided material on productivity in the industry, and written reminiscences by Wilhelm Reverdy proved especially useful. Less tangible, but no less important, contributions were from colleagues and friends at Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Pittsburgh Center for Social History who inspired me to think about this study in ways I could not have done on my own. Funds from the Social Science Research Council and a Fulbright-Hays Grant supported my initial research in France. A grant from Stanford University enabled me to make a follow-up trip for several weeks to supplement the original research. Sheila Levine and Rose Vekony at the University of California Press provided expert guidance as the manuscript made its journey to print.

In the bibliography I have listed the former workers, trade union militants, engineers, state officials, and company managers who allowed me to interview them about their experiences in the industry. I am grateful to them for giving their time, sharing their memories, and tolerating the intrusion that interviewing inevitably involves.

I am most indebted to family and friends. Pat and Fred Painton made their home in Paris a haven for body and soul. Both my family and my wife's provided all kinds of material and emotional support, and they always conveyed faith in the enterprise. I only wish our mothers, Katharine Leonard and Dorothy Cohen, had lived to see the book. Our daughters, Julia and Natalie, are still too young to understand my gratitude for letting me work in my study and my pleasure when they occasionally burst in anyway. For helping to care for them I thank Vicky Byrne. Most of all, I wish to thank my wife, Liz, my toughest reader and staunchest supporter, who has shared in this work in every way. The book grows out of our life together in the historical craft. I treasure her contribution more than any acknowledgment can convey.