The mills at Wicksbridge, which David Macaulay so vividly brings to life in Mill, are imaginary, but their planning, construction, and operation are typical of mills developed in New England throughout the nineteenth century.  Focusing on four structures built at twenty-year intervals, Mill shows the changes over time in architecture, power production, and in the relationship between management and labor.  In his usual lucid and highly informative style, David Macaulay traces the history of Wicksbridge from 1810, when a partnership was formed to develop cotton mills that would help America compete with the British textile industry, to the mill's conversion in 1974 to apartments and condominiums.  "What he draws," Time magazine has said of David Macaulay, "he draws better than any other pen-and-ink illustrator in the world," and the wonderful vistas of Wicksbridge and the sketches of wheels, dams, and mill buildings, bring the truth of this statement vividly to life.

From the dust jacket