Walden Pond is a sublime place of peace and spirituality. Writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau built a one-room house in 1845 and lived on the shores of the pond for two years, two months, and two days. It is this "experiment in independent living" that draws millions of people to visit the pond and to pay homage to the man sometimes called the father of American conservation. Situated in woodland outside the town of Concord, the pond and the town itself also evoke history on a grand scale. The Revolutionary War and the literary revolution of the mid-nineteenth century both began in the...

Plainfield is Will County's oldest community. The area along the DuPage River was originally home to the Potawatomi Indians. By 1830, a small settlement called Walker's Grove was developed along the DuPage River south of where the village is located today. During the Black Hawk War, these settlers constructed and took refuge at Fort Beggs, named after Rev. Stephen Beggs. In 1834, the village of Plainfield was platted by Chester Ingersoll. This book spans the early settlement, the Civil War years, and the commercial development of the 19th century well into the 20th century and includes a...

According to its citizens, Hampton, Virginia, is the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking city on the continent. It replaced Kecoughtan, an important Native American settlement. The English established a thriving tobacco port, a planned town centered on the intersection of King and Queen Streets. The British bombarded the town during the Revolutionary War and pillaged it during the War of 1812. Because of the continued Union occupation of Fort Monroe, Confederate troops burnt the town in 1861 during the Civil War. Rebuilding after 1865 was stimulated by the astonishing national...