1 comments about Tri-state Gardener's Guide New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.

1. I was disappointed with the way the book was written and did not get much out of it.

5 comments about A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Dover Thrift Editions).

1. Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

   But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

   While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

   Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

   I highly recommend this wonderful book.




2. [From Boating on the Catawba...in the
   "Musketaquid"]

   I will take the definite role of the
   Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
   and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
   Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
   I will simply state that this work and
   "Life Without Principle" are his great
   contributions to literature, thought, and
   value...

   Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
   (before I get to 'A Week...'):
   "To speak impartially, the best men that
   I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
   For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
   flatter and study effect only more finely
   than the rest. We select granite for the
   underpinning of our houses and barns; we
   build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
   rest on an underpinning of granite.
   we do not teach one another the lessons of
   honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
   of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
   do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
   for we do not habitually demand any more of
   each other."

   If that is not "preaching," but in the
   sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
   then there hasn't been any in a long time.
   But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
   right up there with it.
   
   If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
   not read much of him (and little then)except
   at the University] and had to believe that
   Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
   'Walden,' then I would have given the man
   short shrift...because there is not enough
   of any sort of heart or soul in that work
   to believe that he is even human. But
   fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
   *Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
   imperious egotism, to try to understand this
   man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
   that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'
   
   This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
   in a number of ways -- the two most important
   being the notes in the back which explain the
   allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
   and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
   which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
   and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
   H. Daniel Peck.
   He can say his wondrous words himself:

   "There is good reason for 'A Week's open
   acknowledgment of the attritions of time
   and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
   book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
   an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
   event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
   the period following the 1839 voyage. In
   1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
   his brother John, died suddenly, and in
   agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
   Without question this was the greatest loss
   that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
   to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
   brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
   illness that caused John's death, and the few
   entries that appear in his journal in this
   period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
   though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
   narrator often in the book, the brother's
   name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
   of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
   from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
   that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
   Instead, his memory is evoked through various
   symbolic strategies. For example, the long
   digression on friendship in the chaper
   'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
   intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
   the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
   speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
   the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
   that it is often difficult to tell whether a
   given action has been taken by Henry or John,
   or both at once."
   
   "To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
   is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
   history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
   have served as metaphors of transience and
   mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
   'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
   rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
   provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
   Most important, however, the book's larger
   structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
   the individual losses that it recounts."
   
   [wonderful writing here!]
   "In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
   dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
   its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
   attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
   scenes of spoliation and historical change,
   symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
   voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
   resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
   perception on the outward voyage had been
   observation (of the shore), then the primary
   mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
   Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
   and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
   and returns to the river and the flow of
   consciousness that it represents."
   -- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."
   




3. Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

   Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.




4. This book is a record of a trip that Thoreau took with his brother, John, on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers in 1839. Although it certainly contains commentary about what the two brothers saw and did during the trip, this is hardly a travelogue. The book was written not immediately after the journey, but 7 years later, following the death of John. Indeed, it was written while Thoreau was living in his cabin on Walden Pond, as a kind of memorial. But even as a memorial, it's a bit odd, in that Thoreau is extremely careful to keep John's identity anonymous throughout the book.
   
   The brothers took their leave of Concord one Saturday afternoon in 1839, in a small rowboat. They rowed down the Concord River to Lowell, then turned up the Merrimack, where they commenced to row up river as far as Hookset. Upon reaching Hookset, they visited for a week (a week whose events are not discussed in this book), then turned around and retraced their route to Concord. Thoreau provides a detailed account of how they spent their days. However, since much of the days were spent rowing, they had plenty of time for silent contemplation, so much of Thoreau's material presented here are the thoughts that came into his head as they rowed. The topics covered were quite varied, ranging from fishes, literature, poetry, the Bhagavad Gita, philosophy of history, King Philip's War, climbing expeditions in the Berkshires, New Hampshire geography and history, morality, natural philosophy, Goethe, and Chaucer. There are also extensive essays on friendship and religion.
   
   This is the most explicitly philosophical of Thoreau's books. Nevertheless, naturalists and those interested in local New Hampshire history will also find material of interest. I found Thoreau's excursis on his personal religious beliefs (which he presents as a quasi-Sunday sermon) to be highly engaging.



5. I am as big a fan of Thoreau as there is (I've given 5 stars to 3 of his other books), but I am sorry, this one is just a bit too wordy. Thoreau rambles a lot in this book, there are places where a few paragraphs of descriptions of his trip are followed by pages of wandering thoughts. Maybe I am not at the point to truly appreciate his writing yet, but I do think this book does have its weakness. Written before Walden and other volumes, I think at the time Thoreau hadn't yet mastered the craft of seamlessly blending his thoughts and philosophies with narratives and descriptions. If the relative weights of the actual trip narrative and his rambling thoughts were reversed, I think this would have been a much better book (and he would have sold a few more in his lifetime too!)

No comments about Providence Ri (Greater) Street Map.

No comments about Oak Bluffs: The Cottage City Years On Martha's Vineyard (MA) (Images of America).

No comments about The Art of Splitting Stone: Early Rock Quarrying Methods in Pre-industrial New England 1630-1825.

3 comments about Our Own Snug Fireside: Images of the New England Home, 1760-1860.

1. This wonderfully written book uses diaries, letters, and a wealth of material culture evidence to portray everyday life in nineteenth-century New England. Nylander manages to bring the past alive for both the lay reader and the material culture student. A must for scholars of New England's past.



2. Nylander's semi-biographical book on New England women's history is problematic for many reasons. Firstly, she carries the brunt of her argument on insufficient evidence...only four diaries. In a region that's rich with historical documentation, she should easily have been able to find more evidence. Secondly, Nylander systematically ignores issues of class or race, instead depicting a very rosy image of white upper class women as representative of all women in this time period. At the very least, Nylander should have been more forward about her intended focus.



3. This book is easy to read, the material is presented in a logical and straight-forward manner, chapter by chapter, covering all aspects of life from 1760 to 1860, including clothing, cooking, food, heating, family life -- everything you always wanted to know but didn't think to ask. I totally disagree with the previous reviewer [(A history student (MA)]. Author Nylander has certainly done her homework. The references cover a 100 year span and are from all types of sources -- the majority from first person accounts including diaries and letters, as well as books, newspapers, etc. There are various pictures (drawings) illustrating furnishings, equipment, placement of objects both within and outside the home. I have a MUCH better understanding of life during the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries. The Author is an expert in colonial New England history and I thank her for sharing her expertise in this thoroughly enjoyable, readable, unstandable book.

3 comments about 50 Hikes in the White Mountains: Hikes and Backpacking Trips in the High Peaks Region of New Hampshire, Sixth Edition.

1. This book is a font of information -- everything you need to know about hiking in New Hampshire! The hiking trails have been well-researched, and the author evaluates the difficulty of each trail. Makes a great gift for the adventurer in your family!



2. Living in California, I don't get a chance to hike in New Hampshire as often as I would like. But when I do, I always take this lightweight guide along in my car and in the pack. The best part about the guide is that hikes are described in detail and directions to each trailhead are given in exhaustive detail. This is especially important for out-of-towners who aren't familiar with the back country roads. The authors have hiked each of the trails and they offer pithy comments on trail conditions, the possibility of seeing wildlife and other pertinent information.

   There is a separate section on the magnificent Cosos Trail, the 200+ mile hike which runs from the border of NH to he Canadian border. My one slight criticism is the maps, which could be of better quality, but the text, route descriptions and ancillary material are of high quality. The descriptions of day hikes around Pinkham Notch are excellent!




3. I used this book last weekend. The trail descriptions are very easy to follow, and the introductory write-ups make it easy to select appropriate trails for your skill/desired effort level.

5 comments about Sufferings in Africa: The Astonishing Account of a New England Sea Captain Enslaved by North African Arabs.

1. We should all be grateful that his book was reissued. It is truly a remarkable account of the danger of seafaring merchants during the early 19th C. Written in the style and the variable spelling of that period, the book prompted me to search out a map of northwestern Africa so I could follow the plight of Riley and his crew. Given that this narration was one of the few books owned by the young Abe Lincoln, one can already see the seeds of the abolition movement after the slavery tables were turned (English speaking whites being enslaved by Africans). One detail not in the book is that a cousin, Justus Riley, from Weathersfield, Connecticut, owned the brig Commerce along with his partners, the Savages of Hartford. Ship insurance would have paid the owners for the loss of the ship, but not the master of the ship, in this case James Riley. It is fortunate James wrote his account as it permitted him to move to Ohio during the US western expansion. Anyone who loves the O'Brien books will love this book -- I keep hoping it will be made into a screenplay.



2. After the war of 1812, Captain James Riley was employed as master and supercargo of the brig Commerce from Hartford, Connecticut. He shipped a crew of George Williams, chief mate, Aaron Savage, second mate, William Porter, Archibald Robbins, Thomas Burns and several others. He sailed for New Orleans in May 1815, passed the Bahamas and Florida Keys, (not without incident: the ship ran aground, before Riley freed her) and, in early August, reached Gibraltar. While headed for Cape de Verds, Riley ran the Commerce off course, and was shipwrecked in breakers off the Sahara.
   
   One man was slaughtered on the beach.
   
   Conditions for the rest were pure hell. Captain Riley and those remaining were forced to sell themselves into slavery in order to survive. The party was then divided. Some men were never seen again, and were presumed to have spent the duration of their days in privation and servitude.
   
   Riley and four others were saved in November 1815; in late September, Riley had convinced an Arab merchant to buy himself and those companions, transport them across the desert to Mogadore, and there to ransom them to the British embassy. He tells in great detail the sufferings the men endured during their slavery and travel through the desert. Nineteen months afterwards, Archibald Robbins was ransomed as well. Subsequently, he wrote at length on his own experiences in slavery. During the 19th century, a volume including both this book and Robbins' tale became a bestseller. Today, a copy of Robbins' account is hard to come by.
   
   The conditions endured by the infidel slaves is almost unbelievable. This book, reprinted dozens of times in its day, sold millions of copies and influenced abolitionists of Riley's time. The book was of the works that the young Abraham Lincoln read by firelight in Illinois, and strongly influenced his thinking about slavery, as did a visit to the slave market in New Orleans.
   
   Mogadore was once a flourishing city, Riley observed, but when he became a freed man there, he observed that "superstition, fanaticism, and tyranny bear sway...[and] have swept away, with their pernicious breath, the whole wealth of its once industrious and highly favored inhabitants;--have driven the foreigner from their shores, and it seems as if the curse of Heaven had fallen on the whole land...."
   
   --Alyssa A. Lappen



3. Considering that this book was written in the early 1800's and is a true story, I am totally impressed. The whole concept of slavery and how it applied to white and black people in the early 19th century in Africa before it even became an issue! Extraordinary accounting of true life at it's most extreme.



4. The author of the book, Captain James Riley, bravely wrote and acknowledged his role in his ship's disaster of wrecking off the North African coast back in 1815. This is an incredible tale of survival under the most brutal and pain-racking conditions one can imagine. The American brig, Commerce, hit a storm off the North African coast and was wrecked. The crew manages to reach the beach in their boats and collapse with exhaustion. However, the wreck and chance of plunder attracts an Arab nomad band to the scene. It is at this point that the captain and crew get a taste of the welcome they that will be met with from natives who are as merciless and unforgiving as the Sahara desert they live in.
   
   Although they manage to avoid capture and probable execution on their first encounter with the Arab nomads, the second encounter finds them starved, hopeless, and without water for several days running. So, they are enslaved and stripped naked by their captors. Their skin sizzles and blisters horribly under the ferocious Saharan sun while they walk barefooted and bloody over the sharp, rocky desert floor for many days - each day weaker with the spark of life slowly ebbing from their eyes. Then their band encounters their personal savior, Abdallah, who is an Arab merchant crossing the Sahara along with his brother. He buys the captain and most of the crew at Riley's repeated emotional entreaties, planning to sell them back to the English consul, Mr. Willshire, in far away Mogadore (for a profit, of course).
   
   Yet despite their new master and his profit motive, their continued survival is highly tentative as starvation, thirst, fatigue, continual danger of brigands, and even Abdallah's own brother conspire to steal these forsaken, hapless captives. And even though Riley must have suffered immeasurably he still managed to sear his inconceivable experiences into his memory and learned to speak some Arabic as well. Their thirst was often so remorseless that they routinely drank camel urine and subsisted on the most meager food imaginable.
   
   This is a remarkable true story and one which vividly portrays the unspeakable sufferings by the unprepared and unwary stranded in the deserts of North Africa. Read the book, skip the visit!



5. A must read. This is a wonderful read of the account of the U.S. Merchant Mariners on the Brig Commerce by her Capt.
   
   Secondly, the Brig Commerce's seaman Archibald Robbins who got separated from Capt. Riley wrote his own account as well. It can be found on g**gle books for free. Hopefully this link will work:
   
   http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=MQkPAAAAYAAJ&dq=Archibald+Robbins&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=6jkFuOattw&sig=8oAQIZb2R0qWl9ENBY3AL5g7ImE&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR1,M1

3 comments about To Set This World Right: The Antislavery Movement in Thoreau's Concord.

1. ...might be a more appropriate subtitle for this book. After all, it was Concordian Mary Merrick Brooks who lamented in 1843, "I don't know what is to set this world right it is so awfully wrong every where." And her abolitionist efforts, along with those of Prudence Ward, Ann Bigelow, Mary Rice, and all of the Alcott, Thoreau, and Emerson women, were what put Concord, Massachusetts, on the map as far as antislavery work went.
   
   It began as early as 30 years before the Southern states seceded and Fort Sumter was fired upon. Women found ways of making their voices heard in spite of being unable to officially register them in ballot boxes. Sure, it was William Lloyd Garrison who began to issue the Liberator newspaper in 1831, and he was generally considered the leader of the antislavery movement; but his most active foot soldiers in that battle were the women of the cities and towns of the North. They were the ones who formed local antislavery societies, organized fairs and invited speakers and held "indignation meetings." As a general rule, the Concord men (like Henry Thoreau and Waldo Emerson) took a bit longer to jump on the bandwagon. And most northerners began to take personal interest only when one of their own was threatened: when Concord natives Samuel and Elizabeth Hoar were run out of Charleston, S.C., in 1844, for example; or when Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was physically beaten at his desk by South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. Widely reported in the newspapers, incidents such as these only escalated the emotions of residents of states located above the Mason-Dixon line. Each incident drew more supporters to the cause to end the ill that fueled the fire: the continued slavery of blacks brought from Africa.
   
   It's all here. Women and men both did what they could to think nationally but act locally. Locals helped former slaves use the Underground Railroad to get to Canada. They reacted violently to the implications of the Fugitive Slave Law, requiring Northerners to turn over escapees from the "peculiar institution" to their owners or agents who followed them north. The Kansas Nebraska Act, which allowed those states to become slave-holding states if their residents wanted them to be that way, was another cause for indignation. The resulting formation of the Emigrant Aid Society sent Northerners into Kansas so that it wouldn't become a slave state. And everything seemed to climax with the efforts of John Brown, his New England supporters who supplied him with money and ammunition, and the failed mission he initiated at Harpers Ferry in 1859. National events that we learned about in history class were felt keenly and intimately by the people living in small towns. Concord was just one of them and is shown to live up to its own "revolutionary" standards in the antislavery fray.
   
   Key here are Henry David Thoreau's own reactions to the events. Retold, and logically linked to those events, are stories known well by Thoreauvians and by students of basic American literature courses: Henry's two year departure to Walden Pond; his one night in jail that resulted in the essay known as "Civil Disobedience," and of course his overwhelming support of John Brown and to the possibilities that make violent acts necessary. Even Henry's fans may learn a thing or two among these pages, once his actions are placed in the context of what his other townsmen and women were doing. Too often we study him as though he lived in a vacuum, and that he was the only one who thought a particular thought or did a particular deed. It is valuable indeed to see the whole picture of that turbulent time.
   
   When Petrulionis found no cohesive account of abolitionist activity by the people of Concord and their Transcendentalist friends, she aptly researched the topic and condensed it into this succinct volume. With academic veracity but general readership appeal, TO SET THIS WORLD RIGHT offers insight into the daily lives of people we thought we knew. Those of us entranced with the lives of the Transcendentalists take from these words a sobering realization: that these folks of the mid-1800s dealt with more personal tension, were more involved with the true democratic process, and more often protested government-sponsored outrages than we do today (even living with an unpopular war and an even more unpopular president). We could learn much from the people of our past, especially the women. Maybe we should be holding some "indignation meetings" of our own these days.



2. The Alcott, Emerson, Thoreau families along with Abolitionist John Brown were among the most prominent in Concord, Massachussets. The women of each of these families were equally supportive of Anti-Slave rights and worked diligently for social reforms.
   
   Emerson's grandfather, the Lord of the Manse by the North Bridge was a Tory/Loyalist (supporter of the Crown) whereas his son and daughter-in-law were Patriots who chafed at British Rule. They have been called a house divided because of their differing political viewpoints.
   
   Ann Bigelow, Mary Rice and Prudence Ward worked tirelessly to end slavery. These women were pioneers in championing equality and social reforms. They formed fora where people were free to speak against slavery and encouraged many to see the evils of this institution. In time, their efforts would influence such noted thinkers as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
   
   Those who were opposed to their efforts felt threatened; they felt that abolishing slavery would weaken their economic foothold and by eliminating an underclass, chaos would ensue.
   
   And chaos did ensue in the form of civil war as well as antebellum uprisings. In 1856 Senator Sumner was beaten viciously for his anti-slavery stand; others were run out of their respective towns and division harmed communities. Preston Brooks, the man who beat Senator Sumner led such a vicious attack that Sumner was never able to walk unaided afterward.
   
   Concord became known as a town of unrest; after the 1775 battle/massacre on the North Bridge and the later rise in anti-slavery movement, many Concordians were driven from southern states. The Northerners coming to Kansas to keep it from becoming a slave state helped Kansas earn its sobriquet, "Bleeding Kansas." The intensity of the change in political climate had reached a white hot level; Concord's influence had spread far and wide. The climate of the events has the feel of the Deep South until 1964, when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Although many reforms have taken place, thanks to these pioneers and President Johnson's tireless efforts in more recent history on behalf of equality, there has yet to be a cure for bigotry and bias of any kind, including sexism. The women featured in this book and documented in American and Concord history deserve their place in the sun. They were among many who helped get the ball rolling in the direction of equality and our collective hats are off to them.
   
   One can draw parallels to Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lech Walesa. Thoreau wrote "Civil Disobedience" after he served a night in jail for taking a stand with John Brown against slavery. King was jailed and in the 1980s, Polish Reformer and later Leader of Solidarity, Lech Walensa served time.
   
   Walesa, an affable, humble man helped set the ball rolling in Poland. Concord could have been Poland; slavery could have been a political underclass as was in Poland prior to the Solidarity Movement. A progressive, realistic thinker, Walesa, a shipyard worker took social reforms in baby steps: he helped unionize dock workers so they could have a voice; he took that same approach to the factories and the mills. The winds of change had hit Poland and many Polish citizens were reading underground newspapers about Solidarity and what it had to offer and how they, too could help make things happen. It was the pre-1964 Deep South and the Underground Railroad all over again. People met secretly in church basements and other places that afforded them protection; Lech Walesa pounded the drum publicly on behalf of his fellow citizens.
   
   1865 - Formal end of slavery.
   1866 - Juneteenth, the end of slavery in Texas
   1964 - Civil Rights Act
   1989 - The Fall of the Communist Bloc
   *June 4, 1989 - the victory of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Candidates
   *Fall of 1989 - other Eastern European countries followed suit. Like dominoes, when one iron curtain fell, so did others.
   
   Lech Walesa was a voice who, like the Lanterns of Liberty in Massachusetts and the Freedom Bell shone like a beacon and sounded a clarion call for Social Reform. Others joined voices with Walesa and many who shared his ideals. You can see the far reaching effects of the efforts of the good citizens of Concord continues to have on this world today.
   
   The history of Concord was the starting point in this series of related world events. Concord really is the Cradle of U.S. History.



3. Let's set the record straight: To Set The World Right is one of the best-researched, most readable accounts of the antislavery movement. Period. Using the tiny but formidable town of Concord, Massachusetts, and its long history of revolutionary activity as the focal point, Sandra H. Petrulionis has set the stage for how the antislavery movement changed the course of American history.
   
   Just as it played a pivotal role in the American Revolution of the 1770s, Concord itself, and its' women in particular, were moving forces in how antislavery sentiment grew in New England and across the country. Beginning in the 1830s, Petrulionis shows how the women of Concord became the driving force behind the move for radical social change, how those women brought "their men" into the forefront of the fight for justice, and how some of the most famous names in the American literary Renaissance - Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Sanborn - became involved in the struggle for freedom of the more than 3 million souls bound into slavery.
   
   Petrulionis also shows how the antislavery movement metamorphosed from nonviolent peaceful protestations, to situations and circumstances that brought more and more prominent men (and women) into the cause, to all-out involvement in the call for separation from the Confederacy (before there was a Confederacy) and advocacy for civil war. She shows how some of the most famous American antislavery spokespersons - John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass - came back to Concord again and again to promote their cause to larger and more receptive audiences as well as how individual Concord citizens, both the meek and the mighty, played pivotal roles in bringing about the ultimate end to slavery in this country.
   
   A fascinating book that brings real historical people "to life" in ways that readers of all persuasions - scholars to historians to enthusiasts to recreational readers - will be able to learn from. MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

4 comments about The Encyclopedia of New England.

1. "Finally, a book that defines New England. And it wasn't easy. Just released, this massive volume weighs as much as our cat. It includes 1.5 million words in 22 thematic sections, written and edited by hundreds of experts. "The Encyclopedia of New England" includes 1,300 entries on important people, places, events, ideas and artifacts, plus 500 illustrations and maps on a total of almost 1,600 pages.
   Edited by Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters (both from UNH), this reference of New England culture includes an introduction by poet Donald Hall. New England, as you will soon see, is much more than white steeples, stone walls and maple syrup." (from Seacoast NH website)



2. This is a great reference but, unlike many others, it is not simply a list of things with discussion. It is written as a carefully woven story of New England. It is fascinating and wonderful to read.



3. I am from New England and was looking forward to receiving this book. It reads like a textbook and is incredibly boring. Don't waste your money!



4. Though organized a bit unconventionally "New England. the Culture and History of an American Region" is a wonderful addition to the growing number of State and regional encyclopedias being published in the United States.
   
   An independent America owes much to New England for the region's political and military leaders, indeed much of its population, played a seminal role in this country's fight for independence. Massachusetts alone provided more fighting men to the Continental Army and more private fighting ships than any other colony. And the region's culture is at the core of America's.
   
   Entries in this encyclopedia are organized into twenty-two major categories, beginning with "Agriculture" and ending with "Tourism". They illuminate not only the history, but everyday life in modern New England. Most entries end with suggestions for further reading.
   
   The result is a wonderfully compiled and written single-volume that addresses every imaginable aspect of life in new England.
   
   Best of all, the volume is available from Amazon for about half the price being charged at most retail book stores.
   
   If you love New England, you will love this encyclopedia!