During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors—many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures—were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison are among the more than 6,000 writers, editors, historians, and researchers who documented this celebration of local histories. Photographs, drawings, driving tours, detailed descriptions of towns, and rich cultural details exhibit each state’s unique flavor. The Granite State has a rich history and varied landscape, beautifully presented in the WPA Guide to New Hampshire. The driving tours highlight the White Mountains, Lake Winnipesaukee, and the coast near Portsmouth. This New Hampshire guide also has traditional photographs of churches, landscapes, and colonial houses which give readers a feel for life in New England in the early 20th century.

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Seventy-five years after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, here for the first time is the remarkable story of one of its enduring cornerstones, the Works Progress Administration (WPA): its passionate believers, its furious critics, and its amazing accomplishments. The WPA is American history that could not be more current, from providing economic stimulus to renewing a broken infrastructure. Introduced in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, when unemployment and desperation ruled the land, this controversial nationwide jobs program would forever change the physical landscape and social policies of the United States. The WPA lasted eight years, spent $11 billion, employed 8½ million men and women, and gave the country not only a renewed spirit but a fresh face. Now this fascinating and informative book chronicles the WPA from its tumultuous beginnings to its lasting presence, and gives us cues for future action.

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The idea of covenant was at the heart of early New England society. In this singular book David Weir explores the origins and development of covenant thought in America by analyzing the town and church documents written and signed by seventeenth-century New Englanders. Unmatched in the breadth of its scope, this study takes into account all of the surviving covenants in all of the New England colonies. Weir's comprehensive survey of seventeenth-century covenants leads to a more complex picture of early New England than what emerges from looking at only a few famous civil covenants like the Mayflower Compact. His work shows covenant theology being transformed into a covenantal vision for society but also reveals the stress and strains on church-state relationships that eventually led to more secularized colonial governments in eighteenth-century New England. He concludes that New England colonial society was much more "English" and much less "American" than has often been thought, and that the New England colonies substantially mirrored religious and social change in Old England.

From a bizarre French and Indian War battle to the state’s first impeachment trial, It Happened in New Hampshire looks at intriguing people and episodes from the history of the Granite State. Relive the humorous, not-so-adventurous “camping” trip by a group of America’s most famous industrial titans in 1919, whose necessities included a personal chef and an electric generator. Find out how one woman’s kind act toward a young Native American years later spared her and her children from certain death during a ruthless revenge attack on settlers in a Dover garrison. Learn how concern to protect the White Mountains from environmental degradation contributed to the establishment of national forests across the United States. Discover how a fearless force of thirty soldiers refused surrender and sucessfully held off an army of 700 French militia and Indian allies at a remote outpost. Read about how two colonial governors—who, coincidentally, were close relatives—shocked their citizens with nearly equally scandalous, completely unexpected marriages.

Although New England contains three of the four most densely populated states in the country, there are still numerous natural sites to be explored in this beautiful area, and this detailed guide catalogs the most unique and scenic mountains. From Mount Katahdin in Maine to the peaks above the coastline, the finest hikes are included here, along with beautiful photographs of the land and precise directions and descriptions.