The modern world. What i found even more telling was how things are invented. How invention itself is encouraged and nurtured. At least how it has been encouraged and nurtured in this country in the past. Its easy to say, as i do in my book, that we are a nation of tinkerers. We americans like to think of ourselves as natural adventurers, risktakers, entrepreneurs. But what does that mean exactly. . I am a believer in american exceptionalism. But as marines like to say, it has to be earned, never given. How did we earn it . How did we do what we did and . And how could we get back to doing it right . As the first nation to exist wholly in the modern age, United States has also insisted when timeed wholly in that making things when we were extracting them from the earth. We invented almost everything about america. We have constantly reinvented almost everything as we deemed it necessary, including our institutions, our customs, our laws. Above all, our definition of who is american and
Thank you, chairwoman brown. I now recognize mr. Gardner, you may proceed. Mr. Gardner thank you, chairman lipinsk lipinski, the Ranking Member, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today Service Transportation boards key role in enabling amtrak to effectively serve the nation. Strongly support the s. T. B. Needs ieve the board updated authority for Passenger Rail so we can achieve the ontime evels and erformance your constituents deserve. Ongress took amtrak on for the job. Common carrier obligations for assengers and the associated operating losses for passenger service, the freights agreed to whereverrak to operate and whenever it wanted over their lives. Trains with trak dispatching preference over freight and to empower what is the s. T. B. To ensure amtraks access to the rail network. 50 years since the Freight Railroads agreed eagerly to this bargain and yet many of our host railroads fall short in ulfilling some of these key obligation obligations. Mr. Gardner, if youll
Are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend on American History tv. Tv,ext on American History novelist and historian kevin baker discusses his book, america the genius how a generation of tinkerers changed the world. At an event in cape cod, mr. Baker describes what he thinks are key factors in the nations innovative spirit. Guestant to thank our tonight. Kevin baker has written several your, at you are still in but also was raised in rockport, massachusetts. He has experienced being a massachusetts person. Tonight,ing forward to keeping an ion the weather, but please welcome kevin baker. Mark, for having me. Great to be on the cape, if only virtually. Hoped to be there, but i am going to have to make do. Talk to you about america the ingenious, this book i wrote. The best thing about writing books is that hopefully, you learn something. I learned a great deal writing this. Americansory of how invented, developed or learned to exploit so many innovations that would sha
A Lasting Impact on American Society. This class is about an hour, 20 minutes. All right. So today were going to talk about america during the First World War. And ive called this lecture americans at war the myth busters edition. And i did that kind of intentionally. Because when we think about understanding the First World War in general, there are so many myths and misconceptions that are attached to the war that its really interesting for us to first understand why those myths exist and then to unpam them a little bit and think more about the reality of the experience, right . I want to start first by talking about how this connects to the First World War overall. So its not just america that has these myths, but even this sense of how we understand the First World War to begin with. And we think of the kind of general narrative that we attach to it. One of the most common narratives is that world war i was a senseless slaughter. Right . Weve already talked about the uncertainty as
Exist and get to unpack them a little bit a little bit and learn about the reality of the experience. I wanted to start first by talking about how this connects to the First World War overall. Its not just america has these myths, but even the sense of how we understand the First World War to begin with, and we think of the kind general narrative that we attached to it, one of the most common narratives is that world war i was a senseless slaughter. We already talked about why this war even occurred. But once its underway, it is sort of predominant image and we get that image a lot from popular culture, those are the kind of images i have up here for you, of the idea that this really was just meant and then sent needlessly to their death. I have an example, all quiet on the western front. You are gonna like this image. This is the cover for the first english edition of the novel. Youll recognize that image from something we discussed last class, and last class was with a german war bon