Bowdoin College is one of the oldest bastions of liberal arts education in the United States, belonging to the "Little Ivies"

A Temple of Knowledge at the Edge of the World

Founded in 1794, the college looks exactly as a European imagines an elite American university should look. Red-brick Georgian-style buildings, centennial trees, and the absolute silence of the libraries.

But behind this academic idyll lies the stern character of New England. There is no room for accidental people here. The atmosphere reminds me of the closed clubs of old Moscow or the intellectual salons of St. Petersburg in the 19th century. Here it smells of old books, sea breeze, and big money.

A Son of Maine: Nathaniel Hawthorne

The main literary star of these parts. It was here, as a student, that he met his eternal opponent and friend — the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Hawthorne wrote about the dark secrets of the Puritan soul. Walking through the empty alleys of the campus early in the morning, I understood where this Gothic gloom comes from. In New England, beauty always neighbors the coldness of death. These white church spires and strict college columns look too perfect for such an imperfect world.

The Legacy of the Civil War

Bowdoin gave America General Joshua Chamberlain — the hero of Gettysburg. A man who was a professor of rhetoric but became a general who saved the Union. This is a very American trait — the transition from office scholarship to real action. And my experience traveling through Cleveland and Akron resonates with this. America respects those who work hard and make bold decisions.

David Polyakov (Special Correspondent for API TV from Brunswick, Maine, USA)