Review by Choice Review
Brooks, former editor-in-chief of Houghton Mifflin Company, provides an engaging account of a year in the life of Concord, Massachusetts. Set in 1846, this work recreates a small, but lively intellectual circle peopled by the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sarah Ripley, and Bronson Alcott. The author is especially skillful in discussing these individuals' intellectual and personal lives; the book also provides an almost firsthand feel for the subject. There is a sense however, that for a brief moment in time the town was a utopia. Few of antebellum America's other reformers, many of whom the author disparages, ever envisioned a more idyllic community than this one. The result is a nostalgic discussion of a small group of people who stood at America's intellectual crossroads. Still, this is a useful introduction to many of the leading figures and important ideas of an era. General readers. -J. C. Arndt, James Madison University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
