Dissertation_A Bick_May 25 - DataSpace at Princeton University

Jacob Soll, George Stocking, Erik Thomson, and Maurizio Viroli. In his absence Carl
Wennerlind allowed me to teach, and thus in effect to take, his seminar on “Capitalism and the
Enlightenment” at Barnard College. Further afield, Chris DeCorse invited me to join an
archaeological survey led by Sam Spiers at Komenda, west of Elmina on the Gold Coast.
Nick Popper and Theo Dunkelgruen each gave a nod to the more unconventional of my
proposed methodologies, at the expense of something much less interesting. Both of them, along
with Will Deringer, Christienna Fryar, Glenn Huekel, Rachael Lammers, Tom Leng, Noah
Millstone, Dael Norwood, Margaret Schotte, Aaron Tugendhaft, and Annie Twitty read and
offered essential comments on chapter drafts or their workshop predecessors.
I was instructed in the Dutch language by Wijnie de Groot, René Wezel, and Robbert
Joon, and in early modern Dutch paleography by Agnes Dunselman, Kees Stahl, and Emmanuel
Kreike. Chris Heezackers, Nick Popper, and John Byron Kuhner all generously assisted
translating letters from Latin; Diana Brown and David Parker did the same for correspondence in
Portuguese. Jordan Smith’s work to enter books and articles into Zotero was both timely and
extremely helpful.
Finally, my family: in addition to their enormous patience and encouragement, my
parents, Diana Brown and Mario Bick, traveled twice to Washington, DC during the final phases
of writing to critique chapter drafts and help me shape them into a cohesive argument. And
Nealin Parker, who must contend with a modern empire during normal business hours, offered
loving support, assisted with tables and illustrations, and read over every single word of the text.
I share the honor of completing this project with them.
Funding to support my research was provided by the Department of History, the Center
for Human Values, and the Graduate School at Princeton University, as well as the Princeton
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