PAST PERFECT

摘要

Hurley a few weeks into my first year of college in St. Andrews, Scotland, I told a new acquaintance that I was studying history. He smiled archly and said: "Naturally you've come here to study history. America doesn't have any history."This conversation happened yards from a ruined 12th-century cathedral, on a street where no building was less than 250 years old. Every stone seemed to lend silent authority to his point-which made it hard for me to argue, being 18, awkward, and foreign. Eventually I switched majors, but not before hearing the same pronouncement a few more times.