The People of Concord: American Intellectuals and Their Timeless Ideas

by Paul Brooks

An armchair visit to the year 1846 in Concord, Massachusetts, the "Athens of America" and home to Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and other seminal thinkers.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who could imagine that the little town of Concord, Massachusetts, could have such a tremendous influence on American culture? The names are familiar... Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, and more. It's quite a little Bloomsbury, isn't it? The book is about the mid-1840s, and covers more than just the creative people who lived there then.

[Stuart Endick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The purpose of this book was to present a picture of Concord, Massachusetts in 1846 when it was home to Emerson, Thoreau, the Alcotts, Hawthorne and other New England intellectuals who had an outsized and lasting influence on American culture. Although the book largely succeeded in its purpose and was worthwhile, it nevertheless was a disappointment by contemporary standards of popular nonfiction historical writing. Unlike more recent successful practitioners of the genre the author failed to animate the principal figures by using their copious writings to create an exciting novelistic narrative. Although the author used literal quotations throughout the text, they tended to be abstract and occasionally inscrutable. Why not paraphrase instead and say what Emerson or Thoreau thought? Similarly although the author covered much of interest in the Concord denizens relationship to the wider world of literature, science, the popular press, women’s rights, etc., and the nearby utopian Brook Farm community, he could have made greater use of the entertaining and exciting incidents raised by such references. (I frequently had to put the book down to google such interesting tidbits on my own.) Lastly the treatment of local scenery (Concord remains a very pretty town, worth the visit) and the townsfolk was informative and adequate, which also is my overall description of the book.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, leisurely stroll through Concord, Mass., in the year 1846, when you could meet Emerson, Thoreau and other literary luminaries on the streets. Brooks does a nice job of describing this one year in the Flowering of New England, and providing an introduction to the various movements and currents that were being stirred in one small, but important, village. It moves slowly at times, and it's too brief to be more than an introduction to the time and place and characters. But you'll want this on your reading list before making the pilgrimage to Concord.

[David Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insights into the intellectual and literary wonder that is Concord, Massachusetts in 1846. Emerson, Stowe, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and others led the way in intellectual thought while the women of the community led anti-slavery activities. A great find.

[Anne Brenneis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The People of Concord is a cultural tour through the history of Concord, Massachusetts. This book was assigned reading for an institute I attended last summer at The Walden Woods Project headquarters in nearby Lincoln, MA. Anyone who is interested in the Transcendentalist movement prior to the civil war, the Abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad, or early public education in the U.S. will find much material of interest in this book. The People of Concord should also be read by any enthusiast of the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, or Louisa Alcott, whose personalities still loom large in the historic town of Concord which has, thankfully, not succumbed to excessive commercialism of its importance in early America (anyone who has visited Williamstown will understand what I mean here).

I give this book four stars because it left me wanting more, which is probably not a bad thing, because the book serves well the purpose of being an overview and a launching pad for further study and interest in the wonderful town of Concord.

[Lorraine Tosiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, originally written in 1990 and reissued in 2006, looks at Concord in the year 1846, at the height of Transcendental movement there, when this small community was the epicenter of the intellectual movement in the USA. All the literary and philosophical giants, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott are accounted for, but more interesting is the in depth look at others who shaped the town, from Judge Samuel Hoar, the foremost lawyer, to Edmund Hosmer and MInot Pratt, respected farmers. I really appreciated the attention given to women of the town, whose worth and legacy are so often overlooked. Sarah Ripley, "the most educated woman in Concord" (Margaret Fuller visited but never lived in town) apparently raised a slew of children, conducted her role as minister's wife AND prepared young men for entrance to Harvard University.
The book is well documented with extensive research, while also being anecdotal, which leads it to a certain degree of meandering. I did not get a concrete sense of the town itself. I would have preferred a more three sixty approach to the seasons and customs and every day travails of actually living in rural Massachusetts in the mid nineteenth century.
Still, the book is true to it's title "The People of Concord".

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helped to hear the names of Concord before I arrived in Concord.

[Michael Paribello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts were very interesting, but overall, TMI.

[Melanie Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched, thorough history of Concord and the visionaries that resided there.