People of Concord Book

The People of Concord is a cultural tour through the history of Concord, Massachusetts. This book was assigned reading for an institute I attended last summer at The Walden Woods Project headquarters in nearby Lincoln, MA. Anyone who is interested in the Transcendentalist movement prior to the civil war, the Abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad, or early public education in the U.S. will find much material of interest in this book. The People of Concord should also be read by any enthusiast of the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, or Louisa Alcott, whose personalities still loom large in the historic town of Concord which has, thankfully, not succumbed to excessive commercialism of its importance in early America (anyone who has visited Williamstown will understand what I mean here).

I give this book four stars because it left me wanting more, which is probably not a bad thing, because the book serves well the purpose of being an overview and a launching pad for further study and interest in the wonderful town of Concord.