Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio glosses). Read the rationale behind these sound bites for more information.
301-310 of 734 Sound Bites. [show all]
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301) American history is not dull any longer; it is a sensuous experience. (Frances FitzGerald, America 16) [SoundBite #123]
302) Most of the patriotic symbols and rituals that Americans now take for granted or think of as timeless representations of national culture are in fact quite recent. . . . "The Star-Spangled Banner" was finally approved as the official national anthem in 1931. . . . Moreover, these symbols of the nation emerged, not from a harmonious national consensus, but rather out of fiercely contested debates. (Cecilia Elizabeth O' Leary 3) [SoundBite #302]
303) My first answer therefore to the question, What is History?, is that it is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between the present and the past. (Edward Hallett Carr 24) [SoundBite #303]
304) A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form. Man . . . does not improvise. The nation, like the individual, is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice, and devotion. Of all cults, that of the ancestors is the most legitimate, for the ancestors have made us what we are. A heroic past, great men, glory . . . this is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. (Ernest Renan 19) [SoundBite #304]
305) What did you learn in school today, / Dear little boy of mine? / I learned our government must be strong. / It’s always right and never wrong… / That’s what I learned in school. --Song by Tom Paxon (Gary Nash et. al. 25) [SoundBite #305]
306) [There are] three resonant concepts of what constitutes a national culture as "an imagined community": memories from the past; the desire to live together; the perpetuation of the heritage. (Stuart Hall 296) [SoundBite #306]
307) The writers of history books, the makers of history, and we the now-critics of this jumbled heap of acquired knowledge must sift through the reality of others' perceptions to find what is real. (Douglas McKerns, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #307]
308) There is the tradition which shapes a large part of our lives, perpetuating customs, habits of behavior, rites, ethical norms and beliefs. There is nothing mysterious about tradition in this sense; it is transmitted from one generation to the next, partly by the ordinary process of living in society, without any conscious effort on anyone’s part, partly by men whose function it is to do so: priests, schoolmasters, parents, judges, party leaders, censors, neighbors. There is also nothing reliable about this sort of tradition; that is to say, its explanations and narrations are, as anyone can judge by a minimum of observation, rarely quite accurate, and sometimes altogether false. Reliability is, of course, irrelevant; so long as the tradition is accepted, it works, and it must work if the society is not to fall apart. (Moses Finley, qtd. in Kammen, Mystic 7) [SoundBite #308]
309) In the long run of history, the names of individuals fade, but the great movements which have been inspired and defended by the mass of virtue, which we call the national spirit, remain as solid achievements and mark the advance which civilization attains. (Newton W. Baker, qtd. in Rollins and O'Connor, Hollywood's World 4) [SoundBite #309]
310) It's interesting to consider how much history is left by the wayside in some mixed up attempt to save face. We live in a world of revisionist history where whenever we -- as a society -- don't like the way we are portrayed, we cut the offending nugget of historical importance out. (Kristen Englehardt, Lehigh University) [SoundBite #1835]
