In the interview “Airpower’s Century” (November/December 2003), Walter Boyne suggests that British air attacks over Germany were a major factor in keeping the Soviet Union fighting. This point deserves some emphasis. According to German figures, nearly one million men were occupied almost exclusively with fighting the Allied Air Forces. A similar number in the German Navy were engaged solely in the Atlantic. Add to this number a good fraction of the Luftwaffe, and one can see that even while there wasn’t any second front on land, much of Germany’s manpower was kept away from the Russian front by the Allies, and largely by the British.
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January 2011
Hudson is a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of New York City. It’s also a gorgeous two-hour ride on Amtrak (800-872-7245, www.amtrak.com ) from New York’s Penn Station. The train runs right alongside the Hudson River the whole way, past the Palisades, the Tappan Zee, Bear Mountain, the Highlands, West Point, and other sights.
For reservations and more information on Yellowstone, visit: www.yellowstoneparknet.com . In recognition of Yellowstone’s rich human history, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the park’s primary concessionaire, has begun holding regular Heritage Days events. In 2004 these are set for May 7–9, June 19–20, and August 28–29 and will pay special tribute to the Old Faithful Inn’s centennial. Expect musical performances, interpretive programs, historic restoration demonstrations, and more.
Getting to stay in the Old Faithful Inn is another matter. Its rooms (generally priced from $84 to $197; some have shared bathrooms) tend to fill up a year or more in advance, especially in summer, and they’re expected to be an especially prized booking in 2004. Have your travel agent check availability, or call 307-344-7311.
Even if there’s no room at the inn, be sure to stop by for the free 45-minute tour held several times daily during the inn’s May 9-October 12 season. Check at the inn or see the Yellowstone Today park newspaper for times.
“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do,” Mark Twain once instructed his readers. “So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.”
The 18th century was an aristocratic age, even in relatively egalitarian America. The elite were the major landowners in the plantation colonies, such as Thomas Jefferson, and the great merchants in port cities, such as John Hancock.
So, it is hardly surprising that, of all the Founding Fathers, only two were not born into the higher reaches of American society. One was Benjamin Franklin. His father was a Boston chandler and soap-maker, what today we would call lower middle class, and Franklin was apprenticed to his older brother to learn the trade of printing. But, by the time of the American Revolution, he had become one of the most famous people in the world, not to mention very wealthy. If he was not born into the elite, Franklin had most certainly risen into it by the time of the Revolution.