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Massachusetts
The Bay State, cultural anchor of New England
Massachusetts crowds remarkable variety into a compact stretch of New England. Its eastern edge is all coast — the deep harbor of Boston, the rocky North Shore, and the great sandy hook of Cape Cod curling into the Atlantic, with the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket beyond. Westward the land rises through the rolling hills of the central uplands to the Connecticut River valley and finally the Berkshire Hills, where Mount Greylock tops the state at 3,489 feet (1,063 m).
Glaciers built much of the modern coastline, dropping the sand and gravel that became Cape Cod and the offshore islands and leaving the harbors that made Massachusetts a maritime power. Boston, founded in 1630 and ringed by some of the country's oldest towns, grew into the cultural and intellectual capital of the region, home to a dense cluster of universities and a knowledge economy. From Atlantic beaches to Berkshire forest, the Bay State remains the population and economic core of New England.
Economy
Massachusetts has one of the most knowledge-intensive economies in the country, powered by a dense concentration of world-leading universities such as Harvard and MIT. That research base feeds the densest biotechnology and pharmaceutical cluster on Earth around Kendall Square in Cambridge, along with major healthcare, finance, and technology sectors centered on Boston. It is among the highest-income and most innovation-driven states.
Politics
Massachusetts carries 11 electoral votes and is one of the most reliably Democratic states in presidential elections, with deep roots in American liberal politics. Voters have, however, repeatedly elected moderate Republican governors, giving state politics a more centrist cast than its national reputation suggests.