Customer Reviews

The Berkshires: Coach Inns to Cottages (MA) (Images of America)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Too often, people dismiss the Berkshires as the "Berzerkshires" - a place inhabited by the kinds of folksy degenerates who populated the artworks of the great Norman Rockwell, arguably the Michelangelo of his time. As Ms. Owens points out in her magnum opus, nothing could be further from the truth. The Berkshires are not merely the petri dish of the grotesque - they are also the locus of many random cottages, scattered hither & thither across the landscape, which it behooves any self-respecting human to visit, nay to study in depth. Yes, you will visit the Berkshires for the inbreeding & the unsolved homicides, but you will stay for the COTTAGES. Huzzah!

Carole Owens has written an interesting and informative book for those readers who want to learn more about this particular era and location in US economic, social, and architectural history. The Berkshires have had a disproportionate influence on many aspects of US culture, literature, politics, education and commerce, by virtue of who came here from the beginning. They were a place of incubation for much social reform, from abolition to womens' suffrage and education reform from the elementary level through medical schools. Learning who lived here and how provides a valuable insight as well as showing the esthetic of these remarkable homes.