From Redcoats to Red Sox, from the Mayflower to the first e-mail message, the history of Massachusetts is fascinating stuff. Author Christopher Kenneally offers an enjoyable and enlightening short course in state history, narrating the 101 events that most shaped the Commonwealth and, with it, our nation. Here are the essential stories everyone should know from Boston to the Berkshires, from the Mohawk Trail to the Cape Cod National Seashore.

* Who were John Winthrop and Charles Ponzi, Mary Dyer and Mary Lyon, Anthony Burns and Ray Tomlinson?

* Did you know that Massachusetts had the first public school in America? the first published African American poet? the first commercial railroad? the first operation under anesthesia? the first national women's rights convention?

* What was the significance of King Philip's War? the Salem witch trials? the Great Awakening? the Stamp Act? Shays's Rebellion? the Great Fire of 1872? the Brinks Robbery?

This book offers history in bite-size pieces, explaining everything from how the last Ice Age molded the landscape to how the Big Dig has changed the face of present-day Boston.