Wed Jan 13 · 7:00pm
Mill Talk: Contested Currents: Rivers and the Remaking of New England
Zachary Bennett discusses his book Contested Currents, which argues that New England’s early history centres on its rivers rather than its land or sea. Colonists found damming or overfishing a river “a more effective method of dispossessing Indians than predatory land deals,” and early industrialists used the same tactics on white farmers. Bennett, who teaches at Norwich University, connects that history to today’s dam removals on the Charles.