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Maine: A History
Book by Clark, Charles E.
- GenresHistory
Paperback
First published November 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 11, 2018
A good, straight-forward history of Maine. Although I don't want to undersell it, it's written in a way that's sort of semi-narrative-ish kind of, and is entertaining to read. Even if you don't like history, it's a story (which I suppose all history is) and it's a story that's written in a way that makes it fun to read. Good reading for the cold time of year when there's not much to do but hunker down and read, in my case I read as part of a New Years resolution to read more nonfiction, and I was not dissappointed.
January 2, 2017
I've been trying to read different histories of Maine just to see how various historians tackle the project - how far back do they go? Are they fuzzy with the borders when the borders were fuzzy? Do they do strict chronological or what?
It gets a little boring when I already know all the stuff, but this one was good! Clark put in a lot of things I didn't know. What really made the book was that he divided it up into what you could describe as "visions of Maine." So he included different people (OK, mostly white men) who might not have played much of a role in other histories of Maine but had distinct ideas about what Maine could or should be. So John Smith, back in the early 1600s, had a commercial and patriotic vision for the coast of Maine, thinking it the perfect place for a colony. John Josselyn a few decades later saw Maine as an Edenic idyll. Massachusetts Puritans saw Maine as the godless, howling wilderness. Nothing but Catholic Indians and fishermen who don't go to church. Later, once Maine became a state, John Poor saw Maine as the perfect railroad hub for northern New England and eastern Canada. Neal Dow saw it as a testing ground that would lead the way to American prohibition. I don't think I've read much about Poor or Dow in the other Maine histories I've read.
I also really appreciated that Clark took his time with the story of French-Canadian Mainers, and that he also took the time to explore the coast-interior split, which nobody ever seems to bother with. He calls the middle/lower class interior Maine people "Middle Maine", like middle America, and he goes into some detail about how these Mainers feel patronized and neglected. Being from a small town in the interior of Maine myself, I was really pleased to find this chapter. It seems especially relevant these days. Some aspects of the book are slightly out of date, this being written in the 70s, but it really isn't THAT out of date.
It gets a little boring when I already know all the stuff, but this one was good! Clark put in a lot of things I didn't know. What really made the book was that he divided it up into what you could describe as "visions of Maine." So he included different people (OK, mostly white men) who might not have played much of a role in other histories of Maine but had distinct ideas about what Maine could or should be. So John Smith, back in the early 1600s, had a commercial and patriotic vision for the coast of Maine, thinking it the perfect place for a colony. John Josselyn a few decades later saw Maine as an Edenic idyll. Massachusetts Puritans saw Maine as the godless, howling wilderness. Nothing but Catholic Indians and fishermen who don't go to church. Later, once Maine became a state, John Poor saw Maine as the perfect railroad hub for northern New England and eastern Canada. Neal Dow saw it as a testing ground that would lead the way to American prohibition. I don't think I've read much about Poor or Dow in the other Maine histories I've read.
I also really appreciated that Clark took his time with the story of French-Canadian Mainers, and that he also took the time to explore the coast-interior split, which nobody ever seems to bother with. He calls the middle/lower class interior Maine people "Middle Maine", like middle America, and he goes into some detail about how these Mainers feel patronized and neglected. Being from a small town in the interior of Maine myself, I was really pleased to find this chapter. It seems especially relevant these days. Some aspects of the book are slightly out of date, this being written in the 70s, but it really isn't THAT out of date.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews