Tuesday, May 22, 2012

10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America





一般都公认,美国是世界上追求,和向往自由人们投奔的圣地。
标志着这方“自由之地”的自由女神,在哈德逊河的爱丽丝岛上,高举自由的火炬,紧握手中的宪法,面向东方,传播着伟大的民主理念。呵呵,很自豪的样子。
10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America”是一本有选择的,在美国历史上发生的故事,描绘出在伟大民主理念基础下美国一个自由之地的建成.
先生告诉我,经过一番周折,他翻译的这本书,由复旦大学出版社出版,在中国发行了。这本书所选的这些事件,因未出现在通行的历史教科书中而先为人知,但他们却出乎预料地。历史性地改变了美国。

我最感兴趣的是那篇发生在July 16 1939,爱因斯旦写信给罗斯福,一不小心造就了一个制造原子弹的曼哈顿计划,很富有戏剧性。
A companion book to The History Channel® special series of ten one-hour documentaries10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America pinpoints pivotal days that transformed our nation. For the series and the book, The History Channel challenged a panel of leading historians, including author Steven M. Gillon, to come up with some less well-known but historically significant events that triggered change in America.
Together, the days they chose tell a story about the great democratic ideals upon which our country was built. You won’t find July 4, 1776, for instance, or the attack on Fort Sumter that ignited the Civil War, or the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. But January 25, 1787, is here. On that day, the ragtag men of Shays’ Rebellion attacked the federal arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts, and set the new nation on the path to a strong central government. January 24, 1848, is also on the list. That’s when a carpenter named John Marshall spotted a few glittering flakes of gold in a California riverbed. The discovery profoundly altered the American dream. Here, too, is the day that noted pacifist Albert Einstein unwittingly advocated the creation of the Manhattan Project, thus setting in motion a terrible chain of events. Re-creating each event with vivid immediacy, accessibility, and historical accuracy, 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America comes together as a history of our country, from the first colonists’ contact with Native Americans to the 1960s. It is a snapshot of our country as we were, are, and will be.

Date
Eve
May 26, 1637
January 25, 1787
Shays' Rebellion in Western Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays
January 24, 1848
The beginning of the California Gold Rush also a time where people were moving from east to west
September 17, 1862
July 6, 1892
September 6, 1901
July 21, 1925
July 16, 1939
Albert Einstein sends his letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to explore nuclear weaponry
September 9, 1956
June 21, 1964