An Archaeology of Improvement in Rural Massachusetts Landscapes of P
This book probes the materiality of Improvement in early 19th century rural Massachusetts. Improvement was a metaphor for human intervention in the dramatic changes taking place to the English speaking world in the 18th and 19th centuries as part of a tra
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Quentin P. Lewis
An Archaeology of Improvement in Rural Massachusetts Landscapes of Profit and Betterment at the Dawn of the 19th century
Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology
Series Editor: Charles E. Orser Jr. Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5734
Quentin P. Lewis
An Archaeology of Improvement in Rural Massachusetts Landscapes of Profit and Betterment at the Dawn of the 19th century
Quentin P. Lewis Durham University Durham, UK
ISSN 1574-0439 Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology ISBN 978-3-319-22104-5 ISBN 978-3-319-22105-2 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22105-2
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950856 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
This book has emerged out of a long personal engagement with rural New England, as a place and as an idea. I have visited western Massachusetts since I was a child, when my parents brought me out to visit family friends and to scout out innumerable antique shops and markets. The landscape I encountered, in the 1980s, was of course a complex and heterogeneous one, but to my young eyes, the wooded and hilly regions of Worcester and Hampshire counties represented a romantic and symbolic home. My emotional attachment to rural New England was immediate and profound, a not uncommon inspiring impulse for archaeologists. Rural New England was different than other places for me. It was wild, authentic, and culturally rich. My later engagement with New England literature, particularly the nineteenthcentury transcendentalists and twentieth-century fantasy writers such as H.P. Lovecraft cemented the deep emotional, intellectual, and cultural importance that western Massachusetts
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