If you visit Nantucket today, it’s hard to imagine the Island ever suffered economic hardship. Real estate prices are some of the most expensive in the country, and the tourism industry caters to the affluent. But that hasn’t always been the case: the Island has undergone multiple transformations since humans first settled there, periods of prosperity followed by economic hardship. Much has been written about Nantucket’s Whaling History and the period of decline that followed, but a new book gives us a different perspective on the how that transition impacted the residents of the Island. On The Point, host Mindy Todd interviews Everett Crosby, Emeritus Professor of History and Chairman of the Medieval Studies Program at the University of Virginia. His new book is titled The Making of Nantucket Family Lives and Fortunes in the Nineteenth Century.
