The Groton Historical Society will host a talk on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 7 P.M. at Legion Hall, 75 Hollis Street in Groton, on: “Trials of an Old New England Town in a Young Nation” by Mary Babson Fuhrer. Mrs. Fuhrer has recently published Crisis of Community: Trials and Transformation of a New England Town, 1815-1848, a history of Boylston MA in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Many of the concerns are the same as those in Groton at the time: slavery, changing labor force, farm to industrial economy, and they bear a startling affinity to the issues of today. The Boston Globe’s reviewer observed:
The questions the book raises about political partisanship, the role of religion, the departure of children from the nest, and job security make Fuhrer’s book relevant today. Ours is an era of great technological advancement that propels us forward in similarly unknown directions. …a time of growing inequality between the rich and everyone else, as notions of communal farm life took a back seat to individualism and the rise of a market economy.
Mary Fuhrer is a public historian, scholar and speaker who lives in Concord, MA. She has a B.A. in History from Princeton, an M.A. in Public History from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. in American History from the University of New Hampshire. Mary’s professional experience has focused on recovering the everyday life of New England’s folk and helping others use primary source evidence such as letters, diaries, church and town records, wills, deeds, and material culture to tell stories from the past. She provides research and programs as a consulting historian for historical and humanities associations.
This program is free and open to the public thanks to a grant from the Town of Groton’s Trust Funds’ lecture fund. Call the Groton Historical Society at 478- 448-0092 for further information, or check the website: GrotonHistoricalSociety.org.