A Tale of Two Towns : A Mining and a Farming Community in the 1890s

The 1890s were a tumultuous decade in American history, with economic depression, war, heated politics, and labor conflicts surrounding America?‚?’s emergence as a world power. Against this chaotic background, life in the rowdy western mining town of Durango, Colorado, and the quiet agricultural hamlet of Sandwich, Illinois, seemed to be worlds apart. In A Tale of Two Towns, historian Duane Smith takes a comparative look at Durango and Sandwich in an effort to determine what life was like in these two small communities. His fascinating study, based on a close examination of papers, municipal records, and personal correspondence, offers a unique portrait of everyday life in these two towns. A Tale of Two Towns shows how small town life a century ago in these communities was quite similar, and hauntingly familiar to life in each town today.

The 1890s was an tumultuous decade in America history, with economic depresssion, war, heated politics, and labor conflicts surrounding America's emergence as a world power. Against this chaotic background, life in the rowdy western mining town of Durango, Colorado, and the quiet agricultural hamlet of Sandwich, Illinois, seemed to be worlds apart.

In A Tale of Two Towns, historian Duane Smith takes a comparative look at Durango and Sandwich in an effort to determine what life was like in these two small communities.

His fascinating Study, based on a close examination of papers, municipal records, and personal correspondence, offers a unique portrait of everyday life in these two towns. While geographically separate, A Tale of Two Towns shows how small town life a century ago in these communities was quite similar, and hauntingly familiar to life in each town today as the twenty-first century approaches.

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Takes a comparative look at life in the rowdy western mining town of Durango, Colorado, and the quiet, agricultural hamlet of Sandwich, Illinois, during the 1890s, drawing on newspapers, municipal records, and personal correspondence to paint a picture of everyday life in the two communities. For students, scholars, and general readers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

The 1890s was an tumultuous decade in American history, with economic depression, war, heated politics, and labor conflicts surrounding America's emergence as a world power. Against this chaotic background, life in the rowdy western mining town of Durango, Colorado, and the quiet agricultural hamlet of Sandwich, Illinois, seemed to be worlds apart. In A Tale of Two Towns, historian Duane Smith takes a comparative look at Durango and Sandwich in an effort to determine what life was like in these two small communities. His study, based on a close examination of papers, municipal records, and personal correspondence, offers a unique portrait of everyday life in these two towns. "Sandwich [Illinois] and Durango [Colorado], represented a way of life in the United States that reached its peak between the 1870's and World War II. The two towns ... were, respectively, a farming community and a mining community. They were selected for this study partly because I have always been fascinated by the similarities and differences between two communities with such diverse and yet hauntingly similar economic backgrounds and histories. They were also chosen because of my deep roots in both."--Preface