Imagining New England : Explorations of Regional Identity From the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century

Say "New England" and you likely conjure up an image in the mind of your listener: the snowy woods or stone wall of a Robert Frost poem, perhaps, or that quintessential icon of the region--the idyllic white village. Such images remind us that, as Joseph Conforti notes, a region is not just a territory on the ground. It is also a place in the imagination. This ambitious work investigates New England as a cultural invention, tracing the region's changing identity across more than three centuries. Incorporating insights from history, literature, art, material culture, and geography, it shows how succeeding generations of New Englanders created and broadcast a powerful collective identity for their region through narratives about its past. Whether these stories were told in the writings of Frost or Harriet Beecher Stowe, enacted in historical pageants or at colonial revival museums, or conveyed in the pages of a geography textbook or __Yankee__ magazine, New Englanders used them to sustain their identity, revising them as needed to respond to the shifting regional landscape. This Work Investigates New England As A Cultural Invention, Tracing The Region's Changing Identity Across More Than Three Centuries. Incorporating Insights From History, Literature, Art, Material Culture, And Geography, It Shows How Succeeding Generations Of New Englanders Created And Broadcast A Powerful Collective Identity For Their Region Through Narratives About Its Past. Whether These Stories Were Told In The Writings Of Frost Or Harriet Beecher Stowe, Enacted In Historical Pageants Or At Colonial Revival Museums, Or Conveyed In The Pages Of A Geography Textbook Or Yankee Magazine, New Englanders Used Them To Sustain Their Identity, Revising Them As Needed To Respond To The Shifting Regional Landscape. The Founding Generation And The Creation Of A New England -- From The Americanization To The Re-anglicization Of Regional Identity, 1660-1760 -- Regionalism And Nationalism In The Early Republic: The American Geographies Of Jedidiah Morse -- Greater New England: Antebellum Regional Identity And The Yankee North -- Old New England: Nostalgia, Reaction, And Reform In The Colonial Revival, 1870-1910 -- The North Country And Regional Identity: From Robert Frost To The Rise Of Yankee Magazine, 1914-1940. Joseph A. Conforti. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [317]-363) And Index. An investigation of New England as a cultural invention, tracing the region's changing identity across more than three centuries. It incorporates insights from history, literature, art, culture and geography to show how generations of New Englanders created a powerful collective identity Puritan settlers decidedly shaped the intellectual and cultural history of early New England, but they did not coin the term.