There’s a history of American ascendancy that might be written in terms of luck and timing, guile and opportunity. …There’s the past, and there’s the story we tell about it. Those who benefitted from being in the right place at the right time often write a version emphasizing vision and hard work. Maybe it was just a glorious accident.
— Hua Hsu, “Surviving Woodstock,” New Yorker, 29 July 2019
