Though it seems a part of the natural landscape of New England today, Massachusetts's Swift River Valley reservoir, dam, and nature area was a triumph of 1930s civil engineering. Despite the project's forward-looking environmental stewardship and social policy, however, the "little people"—and the four isolated towns in which they lived—got lost along the way. In this meticulously researched history, Elisabeth Rosenberg recounts the origins of the Quabbin Reservoir, and brings to light the distinct local cultures that vanished in the upheaval.