ABSTRACT
Years ago I read Dale Carnegie’s classic textbook on American niceness, How to Win Friends and Influence People (1981, orig. 1937). I’ve forgotten everything about it, except for one observation by Carnegie: ‘Always remember a person’s name, because that is his favorite word in the English language.’ True enough. One might add that a rather long manuscript that deals, chapter by chapter, with oneself must be the favourite reading at least of academics. (That would be the PG-rated description. The R-rated description would say that it is the favourite form of cognitive masturbation, at least by academics.) In any case, I confess, possibly not to my moral credit, that I enjoyed the exercise. Thus I must thank Linda Woodhead and all the contributors for having enhanced my summer. I must also thank them for the thoughtful and eminently fair way in which they dealt with my embarrassingly large literary output. The contributors range from individuals whom I have known for many years to some whom I have never met, but it is gratifying that, after having finished reading the manuscript, I did not have to add a single name to my enemy list.
