“The Place of Stone” reviewed in Historical Journal of Massachusetts

The Historical Journal of Massachusetts, a peer-reviewed annual publication, has included a review of my book The Place of Stone (University of North Carolina Press, 2017) in its Summer 2022 edition. (The review cites the hardcover, but the book is now available in paperback.) Nick Aieta, a professor of history and chair of the history department of Westfield State University writes (among other things):

“Although Hunter is ostensibly focused on the Dighton Rock, a forty-ton boulder adorned with petroglyphs, this history does much more, uncovering attitudes towards Native people and the willful ignorance of Europeans and Americans alike as they sought to erase Native history. Hunter lays out his purpose with great clarity in the introduction, while simultaneously demonstrating how complicated a story the saga of the rock becomes.…Most important, Hunter successfully argues that Dighton Rock represents a glaring example of the consequences of colonization.…Ultimately, parts of The Place of Stone read like a mystery in which many generations of detectives reveal themselves to be intentionally obtuse to the facts in front of them…The ‘mystery’ component of the text is in the style of a book that reveals the ‘answer’ and then lays out the crime. Hunter’s facility with language is a great strength of the work…The Place of Stone is deeply researched and fascinating to explore. The bibliography and endnotes are clear and allow the reader to follow the arguments as well as review the supporting material with ease. The rich array of books and archival sources provide a jumping off place for further investigation into efforts made at erasing Native place and speak volumes about the importance of acknowledging Native presence in relation to the rock as well as, more generally, the space of what we call New England.”