American Transportation - What if?

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Reflection: I greatly enjoyed this project. I found the ability to deeply study one piece of history and change one aspect to create a new one quite intriguing. While fulfilling, it was challenging to find the tiny details that would change the outcome of history. The most interesting thing that I researched was the individual impacts of Senator Pell and the founder of the NARPA on the magnitude of future outcomes. Specifically, their efforts in advocating for the bill were the sole reasons that Amtrak and rail transportation exists today. They are only one example of individuals having such an impact on the historical record. Systemic changes also affect the historical record in many ways. For example, if Amtrak was never founded, the 9/11 Shanksville, PA crash. In addition, these all revolved around the one decision as to whether or not Amtrak should be created. In the future, I would like to see a possible adaptation wherein students could work in a pair with two separate changes and create an alternate history based upon two separate PODs. Also, if I were to repeat the process, I would create more primary sources for each event and expand my list of events even further.
Screen shot 2011-06-07 at 2.19.45 PM
Screen shot 2011-06-07 at 2.19.45 PM

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