Available for the first time in paperback, this pioneering work has long been a model for interdisciplinary scholarship in American urban and cultural studies. For this second edition, the author provides a new preface reflecting on the research and cultural changes that have taken place since 1865.

“Coolidge delineates the architectural development of [Lowell] period by period, tracing its relation to the trend of American architecture elsewhere, in lucid and illuminating style. A considerable section of the book is given over to excellent photographs of houses or mill buildings.... The richness of the materials brought together in this attractive volume, and the refreshing new approach to American social and economic history give the work vigor and importance.”—Journal of Economic History

“This is the seminal work on the classic New England mill town. Although there were earlier books on New England mill towns, Coolidge was the first to describe architecture and planning in a way to complement the social history of the town.”—John S. Gardner, author of The Model Company Town: Urban Design Through Private Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century New England 

“I used Mill and Mansion profitably twenty years ago when I began my first studies of the Lowell mills. Coolidge’s analysis is keen and insightful, and a new generation of readers could benefit from greater access to the study.”—Thomas Dublin, author of Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 

“We would be delighted to see the book in print again: there is a scholarly audience, an audience of preservationists, an audience among the industrial archaeology community, and an audience among the intelligent lay community.”—Thomas W. Leavitt, former director, Museum of American Textile History