Following a conversation early in October 2022 between the two editors of this volume, it was decided that the record of work undertaken over the years by David Fasenfest merited recognition in the form of a festschrift, which would acknowledge the research and editorial role of the honorand. Not the least important aspect of this recognition was that all too often editorial tasks undertaken by an academic – considerable and continuing in his case – remain undervalued, both by the discipline concerned and frequently also by the institution in which the individual is based.
Despite it being customary to deploy tropes about the awfulness of a world beset by climate change, war, ethnic cleansing, mass population displacement and migration, the rise and consolidation of populism, all in a context where a seemingly unstoppable global capitalism licenses unimaginable disparities in wealth and poverty, both the honorand and the contributions to this volume remain optimistic about the capacity to effect progressive political change. Retaining this kind of positive outlook, especially in unpromisingly dark times, is crucial, in that evidence suggests so much of progressive opinion in academia has, to a large degree, given up on there being any systemic alternative to some form of capitalism.
Special thanks are due to the following people. To Judy Pereira of Brill Publishers, who guided the book through production; and to Anna Luisa Brass, who designed and drew the cover illustration. The dedication by one of the volume editors, Tom Brass, is to two sets of kin: his family: Amanda, and Anna, Ned and Miles; and also to the memory of his parents, Denis Brass (1913–2006), and Gloria Brass (1916–2012). That by the other editor, Raju Das, is to the progressive scholars of the world.