{"product_id":"shetlanders-by-penny-post-the-mathewson-family-letters-1850-1880","title":"Shetlanders by Penny Post: The Mathewson Family Letters, 1850 – 1880","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eKenneth Carpenter was a librarian at Harvard University for forty years. Especially in retirement he has pursued scholarly ventures, mostly on the history of libraries and on early translations of economic literature into European languages. Work on the Mathewson letters was not planned; he just found them irresistible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eShetlanders by Penny Post: The Mathewson Family Letters, 1850-1880\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emakes vivid the lives of the Mathewsons and their neighbours during a period of social and economic transition. Steam was replacing sail, but light at home was still provided by paraffin oil lamps. The telegraph reached Yell, and a weekly newspaper had begun; yet daily lives remained much as they had been. Most people still relied on obtaining their food primarily from the sea, the soil, and the animals they raised. Summers were for work; winters were the time of weddings and visits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eA person always feared for the health and lives of loved ones, with good reason, and the clergy were often the providers of medical care, tough surgery had come to be available in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Education was elementary, but the state had begun to take control. Men and women both had to leave home to find work, though in the case of the Mathewsons the schoolhouse in East Yell was always home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eFamily members, writing roughly on a schedule, sent long letters back and forth, and the British government delivered them on schedule. To an extent that is perhaps unique, this book makes visible the daily events, struggles, and emotional lives of ordinary people two centuries ago. The reader comes to know them and their world intimately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAssembled and edited by Kenneth E. Carpenter\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePaperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e478 pages\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e240x 165mm\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"The Shetland Times Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41715187122246,"sku":"978-1-910997-57-4","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2996\/3458\/files\/ShetlandersbyPennyPost.jpg?v=1716472877","url":"https:\/\/www.openbookcoffee.live\/products\/shetlanders-by-penny-post-the-mathewson-family-letters-1850-1880","provider":"The Shetland Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}