This highly readable book is for people who want to know the history of New Hampshire and like to be entertained while they are informed.

Originally published in 1986, this book tells the story of the development of New Hampshire beginning with the first European settlements. The authors include sketches of early fishing and lumbering traders, the railroad's impact from 1840 to 1870, adventurous mill girls, Progressivism, and the death of influential conservative publisher William Loeb in 1981. The 1996 edition contains a new chapter on the growing impact of the state's first-in-the-nation primary and the Clinton/Gingrich visit to Claremont in 1995, and discussions of how burgeoning development in the 1980s forced once manageable towns and small cities to create zoning ordinances to make way for condominiums, malls, and industrial parks. The book includes a time-line of important events and an updated bibliographical essay.