Historian's address: When the Space Needle was new: recollections of surgery and Seattle in the era of century 21.

摘要

In November of 1960, our Association met here in Seattle. After a long and contentious campaign, John F. Kennedy had narrowly defeated Richard Nixon, thus becoming the first Catholic to occupy the Oval Office, overcoming what was then a significant barrier for election to the Presidency. It was an exciting time of change for the United States. Today, we gather during an even more momentous month in American history with the recent decisive victory of Senator Obama. For those of us of a certain age (and society historians are almost always "of a certain age"), the election of our first African American President reaffirms the hope and opportunity of Western democracy, and is a milestone that would have been inconceivable to most, if not all, of the members at our 1960 gathering. Whatever one's individual personal politics may be, this is a historic new era.