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and motivations of the major actors in the historical drama. 11 My aim is to push the story back in time into the obscure origins of criminology itself. What interests me is why and how the lie detector was finally “invented” in the United States, even though all the important technological innovations had been developed by European criminologistsprior to the start of the twentieth century. My argument is that the machine came about as the result of a sustained dialogue between science—in this case criminology—and the wider culture. Literary, newspaper, and movie depictions did not misinterpret, distort, or corrupt the concept of the lie detector; in fact they played a vital role in creating it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    I would like to thank the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, for permission to quote from the August Vollmer Papers; the Dibner Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for permission to quote from the William Moulton Marston papers; and the Archives of the History of American Psychology, University of Akron, for permission to quote from the Boder Museum Papers.
    I can trace the origins of this book to a stimulating period I spent with Geoffrey Cantor, John Christie, Jon Hodge, and Bob Olby at the Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds. At York University, Toronto, and at the University of Toronto, I was privileged to be able to study with some outstanding scholars including Ray Fancher, Paul Fayter, Chris Green, Ian Hacking, Trevor Levere, Bernie Lightman, and Mariana Valverde. My Ph.D. dissertation supervisor, Kurt Danziger, was, and remains, a great inspiration. My fellow graduate students made my time in Toronto both intellectually invigorating and great fun. I am grateful to my cousin Stacey Crinson and her family for looking after me while I lived in Canada. Ben Harris was an early champion of my work and has continued to send me newspaper and magazine cuttings ever since.
    I am grateful to David Borwick, Geoff Bunn Sr., Erica Burman, Hugh Hornby, Mark Jepson, and Graham Richards, all of whom provided insightful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. Thanks are also due to Steve and Wil Bunn for helping with the production of the initial book proposal. At the Johns Hopkins University Press I have been fortunate to work with Robert J. Brugger, whose timely interventions have been critically important for the success of this book; and Helen Myers, whose patient copy editing greatly improved the text. My wife, Janet Bunn, has been a perceptive editor and critic. Finally, this book would not have been possible without the love and support of my parents. I dedicate this book to the memory of my mother, Florence Bunn.

ESSAY ON SOURCES
    The immensely useful
Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature: An Author and Subject Index
(New York: H. W. Wilson, 1901-) enabled me to locate a variety of lie detector and polygraph-related articles published in obscure magazines and journals. Useful bibliographies are Norman Ansley and Frank Horvath,
Truth and Science: A Comprehensive Index to International Literature on the Detection of Deception and the Polygraph (Lie Detector) Technique
(Linthicum Heights, MD: American Polygraph Association, 1977); Earleen H. Cook,
The Lie Detector: Its Use in Law and Business
(Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies, 1981); and Verna Casey,
Lie Detectors and Detection: A Selected Bibliography, 1985–1987
(Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies, 1988).
    The papers of Eloise, Charles, and Leonarde Keeler, August Vollmer, and John Larson are in The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. William Moulton Marston’s papers (mainly concerning
Wonder Woman)
are in the Dibner Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. A comprehensive list of archival sources is in Ken Alder’s excellent
The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession
(New York: Free Press,