Σύντομη Ιστορία των ΗΠΑ
Don Watson, 2021
A compact history of the United States told through the tension between its founding ideals and the lives shaped—and divided—by them.
Feels like curiosity, unease and awe. About society, power and freedom.
A page from the book
A country’s ideals are easiest to see beside what contradicts them.
ΕΙΣΑΓΩΓΗ 17 Είναι εξίσου γνωστό ότι για καθεμιά από τις μνημειώδεις αυτές ιδέες υπάρχει τουλάχιστον ένα γεγονός που τους αντιτίθεται: οι ιδέες της ελευθερίας και της ισότητας, και το γεγονός της δουλείας και του ρατσιστικού συστήματος που ονομάστηκε «Τζιμ Κρόου», το οποίο τις αντικατέστησε∙ η ιδέα μιας δημοκρατικής πολιτείας και το γεγονός της αμερικανικής αυτοκρατορίας∙ η ιδέα ‒ή, καλύτερα, η ιδεατή εικόνα‒ μιας πόλης «πάνω στον λόφο» (ο πρόεδρος Ρόναλντ Ρέιγκαν θα την αποκαλούσε «λαμπερή») και το γεγονός της ενδημικής φτώχειας και της εγκληματικότητας∙ η ιδέα ενός έθνους «υπό την προστασία του Θεού» και το γεγονός της λατρείας των χρημάτων∙ οι ιδέες του Διαφωτισμού και το γεγονός ότι το 1/3 του πληθυσμού δεν αποδέχεται την επιστήμη της εξέλιξης. Don Watson.Don Watson is an Australian writer and historian, known for his books on political language and public life.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Σύντομη Ιστορία των ΗΠΑ like?
- Feels like curiosity, unease and awe. About society, power and freedom.
- What should I read after Σύντομη Ιστορία των ΗΠΑ?
- If you liked Σύντομη Ιστορία των ΗΠΑ, try Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari), Discourses on Livy (Niccolò Machiavelli) and Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor E. Frankl).
A taste of the feed
The people who hold the world together are never the majority.
You may of course ask whether we really need to refer to “saints.” Wouldn’t it suffice just to refer to decent people? It is true that they form a minority. More than that, they always will remain a minority. And yet I see therein the very challenge to join the minority. For the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his best. So, let us be alert — alert in a twofold sense: Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.
Man's Search for Meaning · Viktor E. Frankl
What it feels like to wait for a whole planet to appear.
What Gaal was waiting for after the disappointment of the Jump was that first sight of Trantor. He haunted the View-room. The steel shutter-lids were rolled back at announced times and he was always there, watching the hard brilliance of the stars, enjoying the incredible hazy swarm of a star cluster, like a giant conglomeration of fireflies caught in mid-motion and stilled forever. At one time there was the cold, blue-white smoke of a gaseous nebula within five light years of the ship, spreading over the window like distant milk, filling the room with an icy tinge, and disappearing out of sight two hours later, after another Jump.
Foundation · Isaac Asimov
When the market stops following the rules, who is truly responsible for the collapse?
I was furious the situation had reached this point. A relatively small group of people—many on Wall Street, some not—had gambled that the housing market would keep booming forever. It didn’t. In a normal environment, the free market would render its judgment and they could fail.
Decision Points · George W. Bush
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