Customer Reviews

Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston

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Seasholes must have combed every archive and walked every inch of Boston to produce this monumental book. Not only is it exhaustive, but it is entertaining as well. Although this is a handsome book it is not a cooffe table enterprise. This is a book you will want to take with you as you walk the streets of Boston. This book is destined to become dog eared and underlined. It is simply a must for anyone interested in the history of this great city.

Disclaimer: I was very fortunate to take the Harvard University class tought by the author, which uses this book as the class text.

This book is a spectacular work of research and writing. The author truly shows her passion for the subject.
The text presents a unique view of Boston history, with stunning detail and even intrigue. The historical and original maps are without equal, and the photographs and illustrations are superb selections.
Pardon the cliché, but truly I found myself unable to put this book down!

Her recent book Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land is also a must-have for anyone who wants to get close-up and personal with Boston history.

This is a wonderful book about how Boston changed in the last 200+ years. It is very readable, but I especially enjoyed the pictures and maps. It is an excellent book for anyone interested in the subject.

If one lives and Boston and was curious about what the city looked like 100, 200, 300, or 400 years ago this is the book for you. I discovered that somewhere between 1837 and 1851 the street I lived in was filled and went from being underwater to land.
An incredibly well-researched history of how people altered the landscape of Boston.

What an amazing book. I wish each state had a similar book chronically in such elaborate photographic and cartographic detail, the building up of it's major cities. Boston is unique in the way the Back Bay and surrounding water covered lands were filled in bit by bit and built up - going right up to Beacon Hill. It's truly a fascinating story, with wonderful pictures and great maps detailing where the water had been and where land now is. It's great to walk through the book and see each piece of land built in, expanded, and the growth that happened with that. A must have for every Bostonian. A must read in general.

Ms. Seasholes has produced an extremely well written and readable book. I bought the book for reference and I find myself completely immersed and reading every line. The amount of information that is presented is incredible and it is conveyed in a manner that is not often found in such scholarly texts. I do recommend that the reader get a magnifying glass to take adavantage of all the details in the many maps, plans, drawings, and photos. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Boston.

This book is a very amazing book about the history of made land in Boston. It is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in the history of the city.