On New Hampshire's thin, cold soil, strewn with rocks, generations of resourceful, tough, independent men and women created a landscape of meadows and pastures, of stone walls and weathered barns and clapboard houses, that has affected the American imagination.

This is the story of a historically small and relatively poor state, which seems in our own time increasingly attractive to those who seek what the authors call a simple kind of life lost elsewhere. Posing questions about land use and balanced growth that are important to all Americans, the Morisons' account of New Hampshire and its fluctuating fortunes will fascinate both residents and those who only visit or dream of doing so.