This is the second edition of our popular and comprehensive guide to the natural history of Massachusetts' four western counties, with more than 400 full-color photographs, maps and illustrations. Everything from bears and beavers to snakes and spiders is covered. Learn about the region's geology, its rivers and mountains. Find out how it was formed by the ice age and volcanic activity. Learn about the first human residents. There are charts showing when wildflowers bloom and when butterflies are on the wing. There are checklists of common birds, trees, wildflowers and butterflies. There is also a calendar showing when events in nature happen through the months in the four counties.

Ben Kimball, a long-time trail runner, provides profiles of fifty-one great trail runs in western Massachusetts. Geographically, this book covers the area between the Quabbin Reservoir and upstate New York, including the Pioneer Valley and Berkshire areas as well as portions of the Taconic Highlands. Elevations range from the lowlands of the Connecticut River and Housatonic River valleys to the state's highest point at the top of Mount Greylock. The trails profiled represent a range of locations within the region as well as a range of difficulty levels and terrain types. There are options for everyone, from the beginner to the experienced trail runner looking for new options. Each run receives a two-page treatment that includes an informative trail description and a trail map, along with a scannable QR code to download each map to your smartphone. This book will appeal to the entire running community of Massachusetts and the surrounding region, including the Pioneer Valley along the Connecticut River, communities along the Housatonic River corridor in the Berkshires, the many running clubs in the Boston area, and seasonal vacationers.

Between the late colonial period and the Civil War, the countryside of the American northeast was largely transformed. Rural New England changed from a society of independent farmers relatively isolated from international markets into a capitalist economy closely linked to the national market, an economy in which much farming and manufacturing output was produced by wage labor. Using the Connecticut Valley as an example, The Roots of Rural Capitalism demonstrates how this important change came about. Christopher Clark joins the active debate on the "transition to capitalism" with a fresh interpretation that integrates the insights of previous studies with the results of his detailed research. Largely rejecting the assumption of recent scholars that economic change can be explained principally in terms of markets, he constructs a broader social history of the rural economy and traces the complex interactions of social structure, household strategies, gender relations, and cultural values that propelled the countryside from one economic system to another. Above all, he shows that people of rural Massachusetts were not passive victims of changes forced upon them, but actively created a new economic world as they tried to secure their livelihoods under changing demographic and economic circumstances. The emergence of rural capitalism, Clark maintains, was not the result of a single "transition"; rather, it was an accretion of new institutions and practices that occurred over two generations, and in two broad chronological phases. It is his singular contribution to demonstrate the coexistence of a family-based household economy (persisting well into the nineteenth century) and the market-oriented system of production and exchange that is generally held to have emerged full-blown by the eighteenth century. He is adept at describing the clash of values sustaining both economies, and the ways in which the rural household-based economy, through a process he calls "involution," ultimately gave way to a new order. His analysis of the distinctive role of rural women in this transition constitutes a strong new element in the study of gender as a factor in the economic, social, and cultural shifts of the period. Sophisticated in argument and engaging in presentation, this book will be recognized as a major contribution to the history of capitalism and society in nineteenth-century America.

"The Natural History of New Jersey" is a comprehensive guide to the nature of the state. There are more than 400 full-color photographs, maps and illustrations covering everything from bears and beavers to snakes and spiders to weather and wildflowers. Learn about the state's geology, its endangered species and its rivers and mountains. Find out how it was shaped by the ice age and the movement of the continents. Learn about the first human residents. There are identification charts and photos for common birds, butterflies, trees and wildflowers. And there's a month-by-month calendar showing when events in nature happen in New Jersey.

"The Natural History of Pennsylvania" is a unique, comprehensive guide to the nature of Pennsylvania. There are more than 400 full-color photographs, maps and illustrations covering everything from bears and beavers to snakes and spiders to weather and wildflowers. Learn about the state's geology, its endangered species and its rivers and mountains. Find out how it was shaped by the ice age and the movement of the continents. Learn about the first human residents. There are identification pages, with photos, of the common birds, butterflies, trees and wildflowers. And there's a month-by-month calendar showing when events in nature happen in Pennsylvania.