A photographic portrait of small town America in the 1970s.

In the early twentieth century, Dorchester was called the model town of New England. It was the most favored residential section of Boston, bathed by ocean winds from the east, picturesque rivers and hills to the south, the finest boulevards and parks to the west, and a great city just ten minutes away via the best rapid-transit system in the world. As a result, the population increased from fifteen hundred during the Revolutionary War to two hundred thousand in the early 1900s. Dorchester looks at this neighborly community of skilled mechanics, tradesmen, and professionals through vintage postcards.

"General Sir Guy Carleton, First Baron Dorchester, was one of Great Britain's most important imperial servants in the latter half of the eighteenth century, playing a decisive part in the early history of British Canada. From 1759 to 1796, he served both as a soldier and a Royal governor in Canada, helping to mold that province's future in government and on the battlefield. He was with General James Wolfe at Quebec in 1759, and seven years later was appointed governor of the newly acquired British territory. He helped to shape the Quebec Act of 1774, and was on duty in Quebec when the American Revolutionary War commenced in 1775." "In 1782, he was appointed commander in chief of the British Army in America. He effected the British withdrawal from the United States in 1783. Three years later, after being elevated to the peerage as Baron Dorchester, Carleton reassumed the governorship of Canada. He implemented policies of defense against encroachments by American General Anthony Wayne in 1793-94, and in the latter year set in motion British withdrawals from America's Northwest Territory. In the process, he lost the confidence of his superiors in London; thus he resigned the governorship in 1796 and returned home for the final time. He lived for more than a decade in comfort on his extensive English estates, but his last years were marred by the deaths of many of his children." "Nelson attempts in this biography to settle controversial issues about Carleton's life."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Dorchester-on-Thames and its abbey have been subjects of antiquarian interest for more than 450 years, and during that time much has been written about them. They are, however, still far from being comprehensively studied and recorded. Indeed, the most substantial architectural description of the medieval church was written as long ago as 1845, and a thoroughgoing reappraisal has long been overdue. In this major new study on the origins, history and architecture of Dorchester Abbey, Warwick Rodwell assembles a huge amount of material from observations during repair and conservation and information derived from archaeological excavation, as well as the unexpected discovery of previously unstudied and unpublished topographical and architectural material, housed in several archives. The volume is divided into two parts: the first contains an account of the archaeology of the site and the architectural development of the abbey, while the second comprises a series of detailed notes and observations on the present structure, its fittings and furnishings.

Mather is a well-known name in the persons of Increase and Cotton Mather. Here for the first time is a biography of the father and grandfather, respectively, of those two great figures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Richard Mather left few personal records of his life in the form of letters, diaries, or autobiographical writings. In his research, Mr. Burg sought out little used ecclesiastical records in England, pieced together events from inferences and deductions, and analyzed by sociological, psychological, and anthropological methods the life of this seventeenth-century divine. As a result, Mather here emerges from the historical evidence in brief but brilliant flashes, revealing a man with a desperate need to verify his own personal worth and to make valid the way he had chosen to direct his life and to worship his God. Through this study of Richard Mather, Mr. Burg illuminates the struggles of the first generation settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mather was the author of a considerable corpus of unpublished and published writings. Ever seeking to enhance his reputation as a polemicist and biblical exegete, he spent much of his time penning theological treatises that set forth the true faith of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While he was sought out a number of times by his colleagues to defend the religious practices of the new colony to those who had remained in the mother country, the task of writing the major defenses of New England doctrine and polity was entrusted to clerics such as John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and Thomas Shepard—a situation that continually irritated the Dorchester clergyman. Mather's career, although marked by minor victories, was in his own estimation characterized by major defeats. It was on those defeats, affronts, and rejections that Richard Mather built his life. The reconstruction of his experiences—both in England and in America—reveals a man of the preindustrial world whose very ordinariness makes his life significant. His biography provides a broader understanding of the ordinary pastors and teachers in seventeenth- century Massachusetts Bay.

Dorchester County's special blend of past and present, treasured by locals, appeals also to visitors from all walks of life. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Jimmy Carter, performers Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Ella Fitzgerald, and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors James Michener and Richard Ben Cramer all enjoyed sojourning here. Dorchester County is surrounded almost entirely by scenic waters: the Choptank and Nanticoke Rivers, Hunting Creek, and the Chesapeake Bay. A cruise along these waterways offers long stretches of pristine marsh and uplands that transport visitors to earlier days, when Native Americans traveled these same waters in log canoes. Occasional glimpses of historic homes evoke colonial times. Within these watery boundaries, this largest of Maryland's counties encompasses landscapes and activities to gladden any heart. Railroad and history buffs, hunters, birdwatchers, epicures, and visitors from more hectic locales all find their heart's content in this land of pleasant living.