“Surely ghosts will follow wherever there is bad record keeping”

“Our brains are hardwired to think in terms of place and to associate psychic value or meaning to the places we inhabit.”

“Surely ghosts will follow wherever there is bad record keeping”

“A city obsessed by its ghosts seems to be weighted down by a conflicted view of the past. Something close to melancholy: a weight it can't quite let go of, a lingering sadness. And though we don't often think of the United States in these terms, this melancholy is as much a part of our history as our triumphs.”