Abstract
Brockport NY, early history, Erie Canal...
Description
This dissertation done by a Brockport native (and son of a Brockport College professor, Del Smith,) is described in its abstract as follows.
"This historical geography of Brockport, New York covers the period between the initial settlement of the region in 1806 and the onset of industrial decline in 1882. As a study in landscape and community change it links shifting trade networks, ecological foundations, social institutions and life-worlds in a historical narrative. Alterations in social structure, spatial division and definition, and landscape form and meaning are emphasized. The community is shown to have moved from a state of moral community and economic individualism to a state of moral individualism and economic community. Some specific topics discussed are frontier migrations, pioneering, development, mercantilism, the Erie Canal, credit and financial panics, social reform movements, industrialization, class awareness, post-Civil War cultural changes and village beautification."
