Half Full in Maine: The History and Bright Future of 10,000 Years of Optimism Down East & Everywhere Else

The world is not going to hell. Least of all Maine. Tempting evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, we are actually living in a golden age of optimism. Hat tip to Mainers including thank-you-for-the-weekend Frances Perkins, Millinocket papermaker Garrett Schenck, banjo artists on the Kennebec, a certain bestselling Carrie author from Bangor, Hampden's Dorothea Dix, and the little known man who now rests at a small cemetery on Mount Desert Island, who in 1962 dated Jackie Kennedy, counseled her husband, and saved the world from nuclear war. There is every reason to worry about climate change, violence and fake news peddlers, but history is made by optimists, not by pessimists. As a result, the world today is better, safer, healthier, more comfortable and more entertaining for the vast majority of us than ever before. And we're just getting started.