Two UConn scholars, including Department of Earth Sciences Professor Robert Thorson, published an essay in the Atlantic on why Concord, Massachusetts is the source of many historically significant events. For instance, it is the site of the first armed resistance to British rule in April 1775 when local militia defeated British troops, an event later immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the shot heard round the world.” A few decades later, Concord became the center of the Transcendentalist movement led by Emerson and Thoreau, whose writings promoted self-reliance, nature, and intellectual independence. The authors note that although Concord is often portrayed as uniquely revolutionary, its prominence is owed more to its geology than to radicalism and idealism. Concord’s fertile river valleys and glacial landscape nurtured early agriculture and reflection on nature. Today, Concord’s intertwined histories of revolution, literature, and landscape endure as emblems of American ideals.

Link to the Atlantic article

Link to a UConn Today summary