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Essays

Here are three examples:

ENCYCLOPEDIA

Thorson, Robert M., "Geology," In The Encyclopedia of New England: The Culture and History of an American Region. (567-569). Editors Burt Feintuch and D. H. Watters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

  • In this innaugural geology entry for this authoritative encyclopedia, my main point is that geology guided the history and culture of the United States in unseen ways, one of which was to help create town government. "The soul of New England perches on a rock."

EDITED VOLUME

Thorson, Robert M.,"The Physical Environment of Connecticut Towns: Processes, Attitudes, and Perceptions Then and Now." In Voices of the New Republic : Connecticut Towns 1800-1832, Volume II - What We Think. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume XXVII.

  • This essay interprets how Americans in the early republic viewed their landscape, with specific attention to geological observations made in the late-Colonial years and in the first decade of the 19th century. Though I cover archaeology, agriculture terrain, transportation, hydrology, climatology, non-renewable resources, and remarkable occurrences separately, the main point of the essay is that geology was a favorite subject of the intelligencia during the years of the New Republic. This volume won three book awards. see curriculum vitate.

SERIALIZED ESSAYS

I also published four essays in the Hartford Courant's "Place," its special Sunday commentary section. Though published as a series, they were conceived and written as a single narrative describing the geo-cultural history of Connecticut in four parts. In sequence, they are:

  • Making Connecticut: The Primal State of Architecture. (June 8, 2003, p. C4).
  • Connecticut's Glacial Gifts.  (August 31, 2003).
  • Losing Ground. (November 9, 2003).
  • Exit Ramp Culture. ( September 12, 2004)

Full text can be obtained from database search tools.

Link to List of Essays.

PHOTO BANNER: Dome of the Wilbur Cross Building, a signature on campus. Rennovated Student Union. Central campus, opposite the main entrance to the Homer Babbage Library. Oddball artwork always makes me wonder, which I suppose it it's purpose. All photos courtesy of University Communications unless otherwise noted.