SKU: 72268561606

In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874

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In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874Early one May morning in 1874, in the hills above Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a reservoir dam suddenly burst, sending an avalanche of water down a narrow river valley lined with factories and farms. In just thirty minutes, the Mill River flood left 139 people dead and 740 homeless and a nation wondering how this terrible calamity had happened. In this compelling tale of a man made disaster peopled with everyday heroes and arrogant scoundrels,

Early one May morning in 1874, in the hills above Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a reservoir dam suddenly burst, sending an avalanche of water down a narrow river valley lined with factories and farms. In just thirty minutes, the Mill River flood left 139 people dead and 740 homeless -- and a nation wondering how this terrible calamity had happened.

In this compelling tale of a man-made disaster peopled with everyday heroes and arrogant scoundrels, Elizabeth Sharpe opens a rare window into industry and village life in nineteenth-century New England, a time when dam failures and other industrial accidents were widespread and laws favored factory owners rather than factory workers. In the Mill Valley, the townsfolk depended upon generally benevolent patriarchs who assured them that the dam was safe, when most people could see that it was not.

The story of the Mill River flood is the story of those townsfolk: of George Cheney, the dam keeper whose repeated warnings about leaks in the dam had been ignored by the mill owners; of his wife, Elizabeth, who watched in disbelief as the dam burst open from the bottom; of Isabell Hayden, the mother who saw her young son swept away in the river's torrent; and of Fred Howard, a box maker who spent the days after the flood searching for bodies, burying friends, and waiting to see if the button factory he relied upon for his livelihood would be rebuilt. It is also the story of the well-meaning but overconfident businessmen who built the dam: of Onslow Spelman, the manufacturer who dismissed the dam keeper's flood warning, irrationally insisting that the dam could not break; of Lucius Fenn and Joel Bassett, the engineer and contractor whose roles in the construction of the dam would be questioned during the public inquest into the causes of the flood; of William Skinner, the factory owner who struggled to decide whether or not to rebuild his silk factory in the village that bore his name; and of many others.

The flood highlighted class divisions between worker and owner, as well as the disorganized state of professional engineering, then still in its infancy. As the flood exposed the dangers of allowing mill owners -- who were not trained engineers -- to design their own dam, legislation to regulate the building of reservoir dams in Massachusetts was enacted for the first time. Engineers, politicians, and business owners battled over control of the reform measures to prevent similar tragedies, yet saw them continually repeated.

In the Shadow of the Dam is the story of an event that reshaped a society. Told through the eyes of villagers like Collins Graves, lauded as a hero for his desperate ride through the valley to warn people of the impending flood, and industrialists like Joel Hayden Jr., entrusted with the responsibility of disaster relief despite his culpability in failing to maintain the leaking dam, In the Shadow of the Dam is a history of our uneasy relationship with industrial progress and a riveting narrative of a tragic disaster in small-town Massachusetts.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 08/10/2007
ISBN: 9781416572640
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.68d
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SKU: 72268561606

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Amanda
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Wow. Just wow. An amazing read
Format: Kindle
This book was eloquently written, or should I say the authors writing style is very eloquent? I loved the characters, and the story was quite compelling. I absolutely loved the FMC, she's a BA who doesn't take any crap & gives as good as she gets. A certain person certainly got his just desserts & then some, the earlier scenes of which were quite satisfying, had me punching the air & everything haha. All in all 20/10, great read
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Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2024
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Lauren
Alexandria, US
★★★★★ 3
My opinion
Format: Kindle
Let me preface this by saying I really liked the story and the characters however, this book is in desperate need of some sort of editing. It's not misspelled words or formatting, but continuous run on sentences. Redundancies within the sentences. There were a couple of paragraphs that I had to go back and reread 3 or 4 times. Overall, I'd say it was worth the read.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2025
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Amazon Customer
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
Beautiful
Format: Kindle
I love omegaverses I had looked at this one multiple times thinking it's just another book about cocky rock star guys that let fame get to their heads and there are parts like that so I wasn't 100% off. I started reading the second book and met the fmc Astraea from the first one,after she had a run in with the aphla from the gym.😁 it gave me the push to stop and read book one first and im so glad I did this book was amazing their was so many characters I fell in love with hoping they will find their happily ever after. the guys were great, the plot was 🎯, and the ending had me 😭😭😭. I was wondering how nate could ever redeem himself, and he did. the last scene with him was sad, but I also felt it was beautiful. thank you to the author for making a beautiful omegaverse book that gave me all the feels. now I'm jumping straight into book two.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2025
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Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 4
Knot their Omega
Format: Kindle
It took me a day to really get into the book, there is a lot happening in the beginning of the story. I wish there was more of a time frame because I felt like something’s happened quickly but they were farther away than I thought so that was a little confusing to me. I felt like there was so much happening but also not enough. As for the story itself I enjoyed it, it was different than other OV I’ve read. Bring the tissues, you will need them. They guys were great, I wish we saw more of Kai and Kenjis relationship. As for Nate…… IYKYK. I enjoyed this book, my first from this author and look forward to reading about Kamaris story. Book: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 Spice: 🌶️.5/5
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Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2024
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M. Schmitz
Carnegie, US
★★★★★ 2
Has Potential, Poorly Executed
Format: Kindle
I really really wanted to enjoy this book and was looking forward to reading it. However there were just one too many convoluted plot points, sentences just did not flow nicely at times, and I was left with a lot of confusion on my end. I think it has the bones of being a great story but seems like it was rushed and I had to push myself to finish the last of the book and was left with an unsatisfying ending. It’s definitely different from other omegaverse novels I’ve read but not for good reasons. I really think it could be great but needs some serious tweaking and editing before I’d read it again.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2025

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