States of Mind: New England

This collection of essays explores New England as it was in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. The 19th century chapters illustrate the spawning of ideas and inventions which made history; the 20th century shows us reacting to events, like hurricanes, and juggling consequences.In the 19th century, through the Industrial Revolution, we drew upon a new workforce (women), and created a market for manufactured goods. In the early 20th century—we shopped—in grand, family-owned department stores just as paternalistic as the factories of the previous century.These then are slices of New England, not just the place, but the idea and social movement, and the force that largely determined what America would be like in the 19th and 20th centuries.