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Boston: A Topographical History, Third Enlarged Edition Paperback – May 5, 2000
This urbane and delightful book covering more than 300 years of the course of Boston's history has now been enlarged with an account of the city's new urban design, architecture, and historic preservation and is richly illustrated with 32 additional photographs and drawings. In the last three decades momentous changes have visited this colonial city made modern. Lawrence Kennedy portrays the Boston that preserved much of the intimacy of the remembered place while creating a dramatic new skyline. Boston has been remarkably transformed while keeping human the features of a beloved city.
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBelknap Press
- Publication dateMay 5, 2000
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-100674002687
- ISBN-13978-0674002685
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The third edition to Boston: A Topographical History appears forty years after Walter Muir Whitehill's original text, brought up-to-date by Lawrence Kennedy. The underlying theme of the book remains remarkably important...There is a truly impressive feat here. Kennedy and Whitehill have documented incredible physical changes over nearly four hundred years. The book is wonderfully illustrated...well-researched and accessible. It not only provides an overarching narrative of the history of the city of Boston, it shows how cities in general adapt, alter, and preserve their surroundings. (Michael Mazzano H-Net Reviews)
"[Boston: A Topographical History] is a lively history of the city from its founding up through the mid-1960s, the age of the so-called New Boston. Whitehill clarifies such mysteries as the name Tremont, which refers to the three hills--Pemberton, Beacon, and Mount Vernon--that once stood where the now much-reduced Beacon Hill remains. With this book, graced with useful old maps and engravings, you can understand that Canal Street followed the bank of Mill Creek, Causeway Street was once a causeway across the old mill pond, and West Hill Place (near Charles Circle) was once a small hill by the Back Bay. (David Mehegan Boston Globe Magazine)
Short, living, and admirably illustrated...What we have is a most learned and entertaining guide to the past and present of Boston. (Times Literary Supplement)
Over the years Boston has played an important role in American history and consequently a topographical history of the city is of more than local interest...In an informed and witty manner, [Whitehill] traces the history of Boston by means of the physical and resultant social changes which have affected the city...[this history has been] delightfully...told in this attractive book. (James J. Heslin New York Historical Society Quarterly)
A good companion, pleasingly written, informative and entertaining, and copiously illustrated. (Nicholas B. Wainwright New England Quarterly)
Whitehill's scholarship is both profound and far-reaching...In short, this is an admirable contribution to the growing literature of American urbanism. (Leonard K. Eaton Progressive Architecture)
About the Author
Lawrence W. Kennedy is Professor of History at the University of Scranton and author of Planning the City upon a Hill: Boston since 1630.
Product details
- Publisher : Belknap Press; Third Edition, Enlarged (May 5, 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0674002687
- ISBN-13 : 978-0674002685
- Item Weight : 2.01 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,494,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,030 in Architectural History
- #27,082 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
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I love this book. This is history told from a unique perspective and by a real pro. Whitehill's reputation as a distinguished historian is what initially drew me to this book. His skill as a storyteller and his dry New England wit kept me thoroughly engaged. I have re-read this book many times. It is at the top of my books-to-read-about-Boston list. I always recommend it to any new Bostonian I meet.
I wish the old man had lived to see the Big Dig in all its engineering glory. His history of this grand project would have been a true delight.






