Massachusetts

From the invention of ether and the telephone in the nineteenth century to the birth of radar and the computer in the twentieth century, Greater Boston has been a hotbed for creating and nurturing new ideas. In the early years of the century, the ground was being sown for a new economy to supplant the slowly declining shoe and textile manufacturing industries that had long dominated the region. After World War II, Route 128, dubbed by critics "the road to nowhere," became the locus of this high-tech development. Although originally intended to ease gridlock and provide an avenue to recreational opportunities, by the late 1950s, Route 128 was dotted with industrial parks and new subdivisions. It was soon known as the Golden Crescent, in recognition of the prosperity it brought to the whole region.

Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech tells the intertwining stories of the construction of the nation's first circumferential beltway and the burgeoning high-tech industries of Massachusetts, which helped spawn the modern age of personal computers, the Internet, and biotechnology.

The Eastern States Agricultural and Industrial Exposition was founded more than a century ago to promote the agricultural and industrial development of the eastern states. Held at the fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the inaugural event was the National Dairy Show in 1916, followed by what would become known as The Big E, the combined state fair of the six New England states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Weathering floods, hurricanes, the Great Depression, and two world wars, it is currently one of the largest fairs in North America, with an attendance of over 1.3 million fairgoers in 2015. With photographs spanning the past century from exposition archives, area residents, and his own collection, author David Cecchi presents a fascinating visual history of what he refers to as the fair.