Place Called Paradise : Culture & Community In Northampton, Massachusetts, 16...

by Kerry W. Buckley

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Place Called Paradise : Culture & Community In Northampton, Massachusetts, 1, Hardcover by Buckley, Kerry W. (EDT), ISBN 1558494855, ISBN-13 9781558494855, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US In 1790, President Timothy Dwight of Yale offered this description of Northampton, a town situated on the banks of the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts: "The inhabitants of this valley possess a common character," he remarked. "Even the beauty of the scenery, scarcely found in the same degree elsewhere, becomes a source of pride as well as enjoyment." For Dwight, the appeal of the place lay in its proportions, which epitomized eighteenth-century ideas about the proper balance between the natural world and the built environment. Northampton evoked equally powerful visions in others. To minister Jonathan Edwards it was a stage for the enactment of God's drama of saving grace and redemption, while to Swedish soprano Jenny Lind it was simply a "paradise." During the 1920s Northampton became Main Street USA—a reassuring backdrop for the presidency of the city's former mayor, Calvin Coolidge. But for Smith College professor Newton Arvin, it was the dark side of small-town America that surfaced during the early decades of the Cold War. From witchcraft trials to Shays' Rebellion, from Sojourner Truth and the utopian abolitionists to Sylvester Graham and diet reform, many of the main currents of American life have flowed through this New England river town. To commemorate the 350th a

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Year: 2004
• Binding: Hardcover
• ISBN: 9781558494855
• Condition: Fine

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