In 1899, when many New Hampshire residents were moving to cities and other parts of the nation, Frank Rollins, soon to become governor of New Hampshire, delivered a proposal to hold an annual event he dubbed Old Home Week. Similar in form to many of the family and town picnics already a tradition throughout New Hampshire, Old Home Week was designed as an open invitation to all the former residents of the Granite State to return to the homes of their youth. In addition to the ballgames, picnics, parades, and bonfires that were held during the third week of August, the celebrations resulted in municipal improvements across the state. Old homesteads were refurbished as summer homes, and libraries and monuments sprung up throughout the region as residents returned, creating a movement toward a renewed pride in the community.

An eye-opening analysis of collegiate activism and its effects on the divisions in contemporary American politics. The past six years have been marked by a contentious political atmosphere that has touched every arena of public life, including higher education. Though most college campuses are considered ideologically progressive, how can it be that the right has been so successful in mobilizing young people even in these environments? As Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder show in this surprising analysis of the relationship between political activism on college campuses and the broader US political landscape, while liberal students often outnumber conservatives on college campuses, liberal campus organizing remains removed from national institutions that effectively engage students after graduation. And though they are usually in the minority, conservative student groups have strong ties to national right-leaning organizations, which provide funds and expertise, as well as job opportunities and avenues for involvement after graduation. Though the left is more prominent on campus, the right has built a much more effective system for mobilizing ongoing engagement. What’s more, the conservative college ecosystem has worked to increase the number of political provocations on campus and lower the public’s trust in higher education. In analyzing collegiate activism from the left, right, and center, The Channels of Student Activism shows exactly how politically engaged college students are channeled into two distinct forms of mobilization and why that has profound consequences for the future of American politics.

New Hampshire's literary roots are long and rich, with names like Robert Frost, Celia Thaxter and Willa Cather beckoning book lovers. Travel to Cornish and discover the connections between one of the state's premier novelists, Winston Churchill, and the British statesman of the same name. Experience north country beauty in Littleton, birthplace of Eleanor Porter, who introduced a new word into the English language. Learn how Newport native Sarah Josepha Hale became one of the most influential writers of her time. Follow young black novelist Harriet Wilson from Milford and the belated recognition of her groundbreaking book. Local author Gary Crooker reveals the stories and places behind these and many more lettered luminaries.

How is local history thought about? How should it be approached? Through brief, succinct notes and essay-length entries, the Encyclopedia of Local History presents ideas to consider, sources to use, historical fields and trends to explore. It also provides commentary on a number of subjects, including the everyday topics that most local historians encounter. A handy reference tool that no public historian's desk should be without!

Like many rural New England towns, Goffstown has suffered agrarian hardships, sent soldiers off to war, experienced fluctuating demographics and produced larger-than-life leaders, such as Governor David L. Morril and Samuel Blodget. Throughout the twentieth century's great waves of industry, tourism and shifting social values, Goffstown has cultivated a special knack for reinvention and earned a sterling reputation for friendliness. From eighteenth-century border disputes to the first Old Home Day; from the Saint Anselm College fire to the Pumpkin Regatta, over three hundred years' worth of Goffstown's history springs to life with Dubrulle's deft touch.

Homesickness today is dismissed as a sign of immaturity, what children feel at summer camp, but in the nineteenth century it was recognized as a powerful emotion. When gold miners in California heard the tune "Home, Sweet Home," they sobbed. When Civil War soldiers became homesick, army doctors sent them home, lest they die. Such images don't fit with our national mythology, which celebrates the restless individualism of colonists, explorers, pioneers, soldiers, and immigrants who supposedly left home and never looked back. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, medical records, and psychological studies, this wide-ranging book uncovers the profound pain felt by Americans on the move from the country's founding until the present day. Susan Matt shows how colonists in Jamestown longed for and often returned to England, African Americans during the Great Migration yearned for their Southern homes, and immigrants nursed memories of Sicily and Guadalajara and, even after years in America, frequently traveled home. These iconic symbols of the undaunted, forward-looking American spirit were often homesick, hesitant, and reluctant voyagers. National ideology and modern psychology obscure this truth, portraying movement as easy, but in fact Americans had to learn how to leave home, learn to be individualists. Even today, in a global society that prizes movement and that condemns homesickness as a childish emotion, colleges counsel young adults and their families on how to manage the transition away from home, suburbanites pine for their old neighborhoods, and companies take seriously the emotional toll borne by relocated executives and road warriors. In the age of helicopter parents and boomerang kids, and the new social networks that sustain connections across the miles, Americans continue to assert the significance of home ties. By highlighting how Americans reacted to moving farther and farther from their roots, Homesickness: An American History revises long-held assumptions about home, mobility, and our national identity.