At the start of the nineteenth century, Boston was at its zenith as a maritime city even as New England was in decline. Many struggling farmers abandoned the area for more promising opportunities to the west. Yet by 1850, New England had been transformed into one of the most industrialized regions in the world. Former agricultural villages had become specialized manufacturing towns producing consumer goods for sale, and Boston merchant capitalists had established textile complexes that produced fabrics in huge quantities. Although Boston had been superseded by New York as a trading center, it thrived not only as a financial market but as an exchange hub in which these hinterland manufacturers acquired raw materials, capital, sales services, and transportation. With Boston at its metropolitan center, New England was transformed into an industrial geography that was unique nationally and internationally. New England Metropolis demonstrates that, in contrast to the course of industrialization in other regions of the country, New England's transformation was driven by rural entrepreneurs and Boston merchant capitalists who recruited underemployed agricultural household members to produce consumer goods. These products reached markets in the West, the South, and the Caribbean, particularly in Cuba. The adaptation of commercial, financial and transportation infrastructure developed to serve Boston's overseas trade to the needs of hinterland manufacturers made their rise possible, halted New England's decline and, by 1850, had propelled it to prosperity.
Richard Garver is a fellow at the Massachusetts Historical Society, where he produced a symposium on Boston's development history in addition to the symposium on highway politics he organized with the Cambridge Historical Society. He was on the planning team for and was a leading contributor to The Atlas of Boston History.
"Garver brings statistical data, primary sources, and, above all, the voluminous historical literature about one of the most important and distinctive economic regions in the United States (and beyond) together in a detailed and compelling fashion. The story of New England industrialization is more relevant than ever as 'industrial policy' and the challenge of 'reshoring' manufacturing back to the US is on the national political agenda." - Noam Maggor, author of Brahmin Capitalism: Frontiers of Wealth and Populism in America's First Gilded Age "New England Metropolis provides a wealth of information that clearly answers how and why Boston developed a regional political economy that was different than New York's, Baltimore's, Philadelphia's, etc. Garver summarizes complex changes and developments in an easily digestible way." - Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, author of Flowers, Guns, and Money: Joel Roberts Poinsett and the Paradoxes of American Patriotism
