A Bunch of Amateurs
“WHAT IS IT THAT DRIVES THE SUCCESS OF AMERICA AND THE IDENTITY OF ITS PEOPLE? ACCLAIMED WRITER AND CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO THIS AMERICAN LIFEJACK HITT THINKS IT’S BECAUSE WE’RE ALL A BUNCH OF AMATEURS. America’s self-invented tinkerers are back at it in their metaphorical garages—fiddling with everything from solar-powered cars to space elevators. In Bunch of Amateurs, Jack Hitt visits a number of different garages and has written a fascinating book that looks at America’s current batch of amateurs and their pursuits. From a tattooed young woman in the Bay Area trying to splice a fish’s glow-in-the-dark gene into common yogurt (all done in her kitchen using salad spinners) o a space fanatic on the brink of developing the next generation of telescopes from his mobile home, Hitt not only tells the stories of people in the grip of a passion but argues that America’s history is bound up in a cycle of amateur surges. Beginning with Ben Franklin’s kite and leading all the way to the current TV hitAmerican Idol, Hitt argues that the nation’s ove of self-invented obse
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ᴘʀᴏᴍᴏʏᴢᴇ™ ᵈⁱˢᶜᵒᵛᵉʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖʳᵒᵛᵉⁿ ᵛⁱᵈᵉᵒ ˢᵒᶠᵗʷᵃʳᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ʰᵉˡᵖˢ ʸᵒᵘ ᶜʳᵉᵃᵗᵉ
ᵖʳᵒᵛᵉⁿ ʰⁱᵍʰ ᶜᵒⁿᵛᵉʳᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᵛⁱᵈᵉᵒˢ ˢⁱᵐᵖˡʸ ᵇʸ ᶜˡⁱᶜᵏ & ˢʷᵃᵖ
LeRoy M∅c∅!
