Allan Mitchell (1933-2016) received his PhD from Harvard in 1961 and then taught at Smith College (1961-1972) and the University of California (1973-1993). He was the author of The Great Train Race: Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815-1914 (Berghahn Books, 2006); Rêves Parisiens. L’échec de projets de transport public en France aux XIXe siècle (Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, 2005); and Nazi Paris: The History of an Occupation, 1940-1944 (Berghahn Books, 2008).