Parades tell us something important about American culture and almost every place has a parade tradition. The Best Ever! explores this tradition as enacted in the small cities and towns of New England, events that at once celebrated the skeleton of the American Story and amplified both the distinctive regional and the broader national cultures. Meticulously documented and lavishly illustrated with nearly 300 photographs, The Best Ever! offers never-before-seen pictures of actual parades, including floats and banners that have mostly disappeared and ranging from the Federal Ship carried in the 1788 Ratification parade at New Haven, Connecticut, to 1940 when the parade tradition largely halted at the onset of WWII. Copublished with Old Sturbridge Village. What a parade! Lined up two-abreast and a mile long, the more than 300 images in this book celebrate the art of celebration. As Jane Nylander makes clear, New England parades were both inventive and competitive, determining who could make a fire-engine disappear or a ship on wheels appear to float. They were also lineups of who did and did not matter in a town. From triumphal arches to “horribles,” they displayed the living culture of a time and place. —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 Reading The Best Ever! is like watching the ghost of another America walk by—a ghost with a vibrant village life, brimming with homemade exuberance and an unexpected ambition. The determination to stage an allegory and pull it down Main Street speaks to the power of classical education and patriotic lessons. Here are so many naïve Columbias, women dressed as the 36 or 38 states, a kaleidoscopic array of Uncle Sams, and temporary triumphal arches without end. These efforts to translate classical ideals into bunting and swags of evergreens are what make the homage so appealing. Our small-town parades today pale by comparison. —Howard Mansfield Author of Chasing Eden, A Book of Seekers and The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down Jane Nylander reminds us that “everyone loves a parade!” And she tells us why in this groundbreaking book that pushes cultural history out of the house and onto Main Street. Here, we find our public selves—our history of aspiration, advocacy, community, and self-identity—through a trailing lesson designed to teach civic pride from the Federal Era to WWII. Using the rich imagery of all kinds of parades, Nylander’s narrative enlivens our understanding of what was important in American life. Don’t miss this parade of parades! —Philip Zea President, Emeritus Historic Deerfield Jane C. Nylander is a trustee of Old Sturbridge Village and president emerita of Historic New England. Formerly director of Strawbery Banke Museum, curator of textiles and ceramics at Old Sturbridge Village, and governor of The Decorative Arts Trust, Nylander has lectured extensively on New England social history and domestic interiors, textiles, clothing, and antiquarianism, as well as on the significance, organization, and management of museum collections in the US and abroad. Widely published in periodicals including Antiques, Antiques and Fine Arts, Early American Life, and Historic New England, her most recent book is Windows on the Past: Four Centuries of New England Homes (Historic New England, 2009).