The 2016 general issue of Historical Reflection/Réflexions Historiques includes two special sections. The first, devoted to the history of suicide, features articles by Jeffrey Merrick and Daniel Gordon as well as a collection of documents that Professor Merrick uncovered in the Archives Nationales de France. Confident that these sources will be of use to a wide range of scholars, we are pleased to make them available in print. Professor Merrick also translated them so that the entire article might be used in classroom exercises; we think that the article and documents would make an excellent teaching tool. The second section, devoted to World War I and its aftermath, includes articles by Bonnie White and Petra DeWitt. Positioned at the end of the present issue, these two articles in fact serve as a prelude to the winter issue, which will be dedicated entirely to the war. Between the sections on suicide and World War I are articles by Michael Mulvey and Leslie Choquette. Though submitted separately, these two contributions both deal with groundbreaking French women in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This happy coincidence makes for a volume divided into three coherent units, which, though distinct, also afford opportunity for reflection across space and time. Séverine, the subject of Mulvey’s essay, attempted suicide, and the lives of both Séverine and Palmyre—the lynchpin of Choquette’s article—intersected with World War I.

We are pleased that such a fine issue includes the work of Daniel Gordon, who served as coeditor of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques from 2002 until the end of 2014, and then transitioned from that position back to the Editorial Board in 2015. Dan has been the best kind of colleague and friend to the journal, first working with Stuart Campbell, who recruited him for the job, and then with Linda Mitchell and, eventually, Brian New-some. He has read countless issues and submissions, stepped up to write introductions and articles, and promoted the journal in his travels and at conferences and meetings, doing so with good cheer, creativity, and kindness. In particular, Dan was instrumental in developing one of our most significant special issues, a debate on the headscarf, guest edited by Elisa Wiygul (HR/RH 34.3, Winter 2008), which is among the most frequently requested issues in the journal’s history and still stands as one of the most important scholarly contributions to the debate. Dan, we know that your continued tenure on the Editorial Board will be a slight reduction in your HR/RH workload, one that is well deserved. But we will miss you on the editorial staff and we look forward to working with you whenever your schedule permits.