Acknowledgements
Academic life is paradoxical. At worst it is boring, lonely, individualistic and full of frustrating hierarchies. But at best, academic life is a collective, communal and egalitarian act of cooperation. This book is the result of this paradox. Although writing it was at times a solitary experience, the book could not have existed without the collective efforts of many friends and colleagues. On the one hand, because their help and advice have been instrumental for producing and improving the ideas that are documented in this book. On the other hand, because their presence made my work and life so much more interesting and worthwhile. An acknowledgement like this can never do justice to those efforts, so consider this just a proof of the collective nature of academic work.
In the first place, and I will reiterate this point later in the book, one cannot imagine the help and assistance I have received from our colleagues in the various archives I have visited over the years. Without exception, the archivists have been selfless in their aid to find sources, literature and other researchers to talk to. This book would not have been possible without their knowledge and their willingness to share it with me. My gratitude goes out to the staff of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the Bundesarchiv in Berlin-Lichterfelde, the Staatsarchiv in Bremen (and in particular Dr. Jörn Brinkhus and Prof. Dr. Konrad Elmshäuser), the Staatsarchiv in Hamburg and the Staatsarchiv and Hauptstaatsarchiv Bayern in Munich.
I would also like to thank my students and colleagues at the department of Political Science at Radboud University. The warm and collegial atmosphere, the egalitarian relations and the brilliant minds that work there have been the best intellectual and social stimuli one could hope for as a PhD candidate and assistant professor. One prime example of all these qualities was Thomas Eimer, our friend and colleague who sadly passed away before this book was finished. He helped me a lot with both thinking and writing about the German Revolution and politics in general. I hope that this work honours his legacy. I would also like to thank in particular those students and colleagues who over the past years stood up, organised and mobilised for justice. Be it for social safety, gender equality, antifascism or the liberation of Palestine. Their collective action makes life on campus lively and worthwhile.
One of the perks of an academic job is that one gets to visit cool places and meet colleagues from around the world. I am grateful for all the comments, criticisms and feedback I received over the years at conferences and other meetings. In particular, I would like to thank the referees who helped me improve chapters of this book at the conferences of the ECPR and Concepta. Of course, the same thanks go to the anonymous reviewers who took their time to bring significant parts of this book to a higher level. In particular, I would like to thank James Muldoon and Benjamin Ask-Popp Madsen. Both have helped me with their vast knowledge of council theory and it was such a pleasure to work together on books and papers about the councils and political theory.
This book is also greatly enriched by ideas that we developed in my recent research project, Vive la Commune: Communalism as a Democratic Repertoire, that was funded generously by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. I would like to thank Mathijs van de Sande in particular for his friendship and stimulating cooperation. These past years have been a great ride. I’ve learned a lot from you and your work, and I hope you like how some of these ideas resurface in this book. My other colleagues in this project deserve thanks as well: Laura Roth, Juan Mérida, Sixtine van Outryve, Ramón Feenstra, Evert van der Zweerde and Carolien van Ham. I could not have wished for a more exciting and inspiring research group.
Finally, I would like to thank my family. My parents and in-laws for their mental support, but also for their countless hours of babysitting, care-giving and helping out when it was needed. Naline, for being the love of my life for over twenty years. I’m looking forward to the next twenty. And lastly, I would like to thank my kids, Hannah and Jacob. This book is dedicated to them. There is no better reminder of what ‘living democracy’ means than two smart kids who challenge your parental authority on a daily basis.