Book cover of All Our Yesterdays: A Century of Family Life in an American Small Town

Book description

Examines 150 years of the social life and customs of a small New England town through letters and other documents belonging to the family that built and lived in the authors' house in Hampton, Connecticut

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Why read it?

1 author picked All Our Yesterdays as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

When the Robertsons bought their 18th-century home in Hampton, Ct., they inherited an unparalleled lode of documents assembled over 100 years of the previous owners’ history. Starting in the 1790s, the Traintors saved, it seems, every bit of paper that came through their hands: from private letters and business accounts, to pamphlets, social invitations, school records, and, of course books. The Robertsons spent years digesting this remarkable trove. In this book, they “open out” the evidence – as Laurel Ulrich did for Martha Ballard’s diary – in a way that transforms it into a moving and deeply intimate story of…

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