I had promised to post more about the first book I read on my vacation. But in the tradeoff between swimming and posting, I leaned strongly to the former. Now I’m catching up.

In One Summer, Bill Bryson, discussing the advent of talking in movies, writes:

Though the significance of this [foreigners with accents suddenly losing their jobs] wasn’t much noticed in America, globally the effect was profound. Moviegoers around the world suddenly found themselves exposed, often for the first time, to American voices, American vocabulary, American cadence and pronunciation and word order. Spanish conquistadors, Elizabeth courtiers, figures from the Bible were suddenly speaking in American voices–and not just occasionally but in film after film after film. The psychological effect of this, particularly on the young, can hardly be overstated. With American speech came American thoughts, American attitudes, American humor and sensibilities. Peacefully, by accident, and almost unnoticed, America had just taken over the world.

Actually, I had promised to post on eugenics and I will. But I’ll also post about other parts of the book.