Read, in Wood, Chapter 6, "The Settlement Ideal", pp. 135-160 In this chapter Wood focuses on the process by which the 19th century vernacular village form is transformed into the "ideal" American Community. He sees this as both a conscious and unconscious process shaped largely by intellectual and political elites. A list of some of the most important of these is found on pp. 141-142. Many of these appear on the list of Famous New Englanders on this website. Clicking on the names will bring you further information about them and their roles in New England Culture. Two particular towns, Litchfield, Connecticut and Concord, Massachusetts have become very important for their influence upon developments in the rest of the country. Litchfield's primary importance arises from its impact on the Colonial Revival Style, a nostalgic form of architecture which transformed Litchfield when it became popular as a summer resort in the late 19th century. The style then swept across the United States, giving popular America a largely false impression of what Colonial New England was like. The Litchfield link above replaces the town link which was better, and which I used to use before. Here's the reason.
“Tradition and history are not the same concepts. Traditions are conventions that evolve. Traditions are the pasts we make in the present. The New England tradition of large colonial houses encircling town commons to form puritan villages was invented in the nineteenth century and Michael Steinitz and I here employ a four stage model to explain how." Make sure you understand the difference between "history" and "tradition". Make sure you can describe the four stages in the Steinitz-Wood model, applying them as much as you can to the towns which are used to describe this process. Chapter 7. "A World We Have Gained." pp. 161- 180
