Drawing on primary documents such as farmer's diaries, small rural newspapers of the 19th century and the publications of state agricultural societies, this provocative study presents an overview into the driving forces of that shaped American history in the Northeast.

A. PrefaceB. Acknowledgements and DedicationSection One: General StudiesI. Maine's Changing Landscape to 1820II. Maine and Its Public DomainIII. Toward a Theory of Maine HistoryIV. The Logging FrontierSection Two: Forest and Logging StudiesV. Wood Pulp and Newspapers, 1867-1900 VI. Logging the IslandsVII. Virgin Timber: The Maine Woods as a Locale for Juvenile FictionSection Three: Tilling the Historic Past: Studies in Agricultural HistoryVIII. William A. Drew and the Maine ShakersIX. Middle Range Farming in the Civil War Era: Life on a Farm in Seneca County, New YorkX. Agriculture in New York State to 1880: The Impact of State (Public) FundsXI. North American Farmers and British Agriculture, 1795 -1885 XII. The Coastal Shipping Trade on the Eve of the Railroad: Gardiner, Maine in the Early 1830s