Excerpt from History of Woodstock, Vermont More than twenty years ago I prepared and published in the Vermont Standard a sketch of the first meeting-house erected in Woodstock, called The Old Log meeting-house. This sketch was followed by others of similar character, till at length a large amount of matter of some local interest had been collected. About this time, my old friend and schoolmate, F red erick Billings, urged that the material thus collected should be utilized, and, with other material relating to the history of Woodstock, be embodied in a book. To his earnest solicitations it is due that the volume here presented to the public was pre pared; and it is proper to add that Mr. Billings has been at the whole expense of its publication. Born in the village of Woodstock in 1823, I have passed all my life in this place, excepting about eight years next after my graduation at Dartmouth College in 1849, which were spent at the South in teaching. Many of the incidents and characters, if not the greater part, mentioned in the following pages, are there fore familiar to me from personal recollection; and, from this fact, the narrative may embrace many things of more interest to me than they can be to the general reader. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) was the first to reveal the menace of environmental misuse, to explain its causes, and to prescribe reforms. David Lowenthal here offers fresh insights, from new sources, into Marsh’s career and shows his relevance today, in a book which has its roots in but wholly supersedes Lowenthal’s earlier biography George Perkins Marsh: Versatile Vermonter (1958). Marsh’s devotion to the repair of nature, to the concerns of working people, to women’s rights, and to historical stewardship resonate more than ever. His Vermont birthplace is now a national park chronicling American conservation, and the crusade he launched is now global. Marsh’s seminal book Man and Nature is famed for its ecological acumen. The clue to its inception lies in Marsh’s many-sided engagement in the life of his time. The broadest scholar of his day, he was an acclaimed linguist, lawyer, congressman, and renowned diplomat who served 25 years as U.S. envoy to Turkey and to Italy. He helped found and guide the Smithsonian Institution, shaped the Washington Monument, penned potent tracts on fisheries and on irrigation, spearheaded public science, art, and architecture. He wrote on camels and corporate corruption, Icelandic grammar and Alpine glaciers. His pungent and provocative letters illuminate life on both sides of the Atlantic. Like Darwin’s Origin of Species, Marsh’s Man and Nature marked the inception of a truly modern way of looking at the world, of taking care lest we irreversibly degrade the fabric of humanized nature we are bound to manage. Marsh’s ominous warnings inspired reforestation, watershed management, soil conservation, and nature protection in his day and ours. George Perkins Marsh: Prophet of Conservation was awarded the Association for American Geographers' 2000 J. B. Jackson Prize. The book was also on the shortlist for the first British Academy Book Prize, awarded in December 2001.

"The Provincial traces Calvin Coolidge's life from his thirteenth birthday until his graduation from Amherst College ten years later. It is a story of a shy young man from the country who gradually acquires an education and goes on to higher and higher levels of learning, but in Coolidge's case that progress was very much against his will. He grew up in the remote farming hamlet of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, eleven miles from the nearest railroad; his stern, thrifty father made money selling insurance and maple sugar, holding local offices, and renting property. Coolidge looked forward to someday keeping the general store his father owned, only a hundred feet from his house, and passing his life in this isolated, close-knit community, among people he knew and liked. This book shows how his intelligence, his love of reading, and his father's ambitions for him pushed him unwillingly farther and farther away. First he was sent to the local academy, eleven miles away, to study Latin and Greek. Then, on the enthusiastic recommendation of his high school principal, he went on to Amherst College in Massachusetts. On his first attempt to enter he became physically sick and had to return home. The following year he tried again, and this time he stayed, but he was desperately unhappy the first two years and asked his father in vain to be allowed to come home." "In the end, however, Amherst turned out to be a success story for him. Overlooked for the first two years by the sleek metropolitan young men who set the tone for the student body, shut out of fraternities and social life because of his shyness and country ways, he finally impressed his classmates with his dry sarcasm in debate, his ready wit, his unshakable poise and self-control. At the same time, he himself was changed and broadened. Under the influence of great Amherst professors like Charles E. Garman and Anson D. Morse, he became sure of himself and well read in history, philosophy, and political science. Even so, as he graduated to the acclaim of his classmates, he still yearned to go home to Plymouth Notch and settle there. The Provincial ends with Coolidge's graduation; a brief afterword explains how he took up law and local politics to please his father, and how hard work and intelligence led him to the Presidency."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

00 Frederick Billings was the first lawyer to hang his shingle in San Francisco, the man who named the city of Berkeley, and an instrumental figure in founding the University of California. An early conservationist and advocate of national parks, Billings was also president of the Northern Pacific railroad. This riveting biography captures not only Billings's dynamic life, but also the spirit and excitement of California during the gold rush era. Frederick Billings was the first lawyer to hang his shingle in San Francisco, the man who named the city of Berkeley, and an instrumental figure in founding the University of California. An early conservationist and advocate of national parks, Billings was also president of the Northern Pacific railroad. This riveting biography captures not only Billings's dynamic life, but also the spirit and excitement of California during the gold rush era.

Despite his status as a scion of one of the wealthiest and most famous families in the United States and an enormously successful businessman in his own right, Laurance S. Rockefeller is unknown to all but a small circle of Americans. Yet while he has been neither Vice President nor Governor nor chairman of the world's largest bank, his contribution to society has been at least as great as that of his more famous brothers. In Laurance S. Rockefeller: Catalyst for Conservation, noted historian Robin W. Winks brings Laurance to the forefront, offering an intimate look at his life and accomplishments. While Rockefeller has played a vital role in the business world as one of the most astute venture capitalists of our time -- providing seed money for, among other endeavors, Eastern Airlines, Intel Corporation, and Apple Computers -- his driving passion throughout his life has been the environment. In addition to the millions of dollars he has donated and the numerous conservation organizations he has helped to found, he served under five consecutive presidents in environmental advisory capacities. Perhaps most significantly, Rockefeller served under Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy as chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (ORRRC), brilliantly orchestrating an assessment of the recreation and conservation needs and wants of the American people and the policies and programs required to meet those needs. The reports issued by the Commission represent a groundbreaking achievement that laid the framework for nearly all significant environmental legislation of the following three decades. Winks uses a combination of historical insight and extensive access to Rockefeller and government archives to present the first in-depth examination of Laurance Rockefeller's life and work. His deftly argued and gracefully written volume explains and explores Rockefeller's role in shaping the transition from traditional land conservation to a more inclusive environmentalism. It should compel broader interpretation of the history of environmental protection, and is essential reading for anyone concerned with the past or future of conservation in America.