Shattuck's ancient history of historic Concord, Massachusetts, will delight students of the American Revolution and genealogists alike. The site of the first Patriot victory of the War for Independence, Concord was founded in 1635. The author recounts the town's beginnings in considerable detail and devotes space to the Musketaquid Indians (the original occupants of what would become Concord), early settlers, efforts to convert the Indians, divisions of the town, and King Philip's War. There are, of course, dramatic chapters on the coming of the Revolution; the Battle of Concord, April 19, 1775; and the War's aftermath. Additional chapters trace the history of the Congregational Church in Concord; flora and fauna; topography; roads and bridges; modes of transportation; burial grounds and other important landmarks; and local institutions such as banks, voluntary associations, and insurance companies. Shattuck has also written separate chapters that cover similar terrain for the adjoining towns of Bedford, Acton, Lincoln, and Carlisle, each of which originated within the boundaries of old Concord. Genealogists will be glad to learn that throughout the volume are biographical notices and lists of Concord's residents, including those of office holders, attorneys, physicians, and college graduates. In the important Appendix to "A History of the Town of Concord," the reader will find valuable descriptions of military service performed by Concord's citizens during the Revolution and many genealogical and biographical notices of early Concord families. Furthermore, every event and every name mentioned in this stirring book is easily found in the rich index that concludes Shattuck's careful account.

As a backyard naturalist and river enthusiast, Henry David Thoreau was keenly aware of the many ways in which humans had altered the waterways and meadows of his beloved Concord River Valley. A land surveyor by trade, he recognized that he was as complicit in these transformations as the bankers, builders, and elected officials who were his clients. The Boatman reveals the depth of his knowledge about the river as it elegantly chronicles his move from anger to lament to acceptance of how humans had changed a place he cherished even more than Walden Pond. “A scrupulous account of the environment Thoreau loved most... Thorson argues convincingly—sometimes beautifully—that Thoreau’s thinking and writing were integrally connected to paddling and sailing.” —Wall Street Journal “An in-depth account of Thoreau’s lifelong love of boats, his skill as a navigator, his intimate knowledge of the waterways around Concord, and his extensive survey of the Concord River.” —Robert Pogue Harrison, New York Review of Books “An impressive feat of empirical research...an important contribution to the scholarship on Thoreau as natural scientist.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “The Boatman presents a whole new Thoreau—the river rat. This is not just groundbreaking, but fun.” —David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains

Hearing History is a long-needed introduction to the basic tenets of what is variously termed historical acoustemology, auditory culture, or aural history. Gathering twenty-one of the fields most important writings, this volume will deepen and broaden our understanding of changing perceptions of sound and hearing and the ongoing education of our senses. The essays stimulate thinking on key questions: What is aural history? Why has vision tended to triumph over hearing in historical accounts? How might we begin to reclaim the sounds of the past? With theoretical and practical essays on the history of sound and hearing in Europe and the United States, the book draws on historical approaches ranging from empiricism to postmodernism. Some essays show the historian of technology at work, others highlight how With theoretical and practical essays on the history of sound and hearing in Europe and the United States, the book draws on historical approaches ranging from empiricism to postmodernism. Some essays show the historian of technology at work, others highlight how military, social, intellectual, and cultural historians have tackled historical acoustemologies. Investigating soundscapes that include a Puritan meetinghouse in colonial New England, the belfries of a French village at the close of the Old Regime, the court hall of Elizabeth I, and a Civil War battlefield, the essays vary just as widely in their topics, which include noise as a marker of social and cultural differences, the privileging of music as the sound of art, the persistence of Aristotelian ideas of sound into the seventeenth century, developments in sound related to medical practice, the advent of sound-recording technology, and noise pollution.