The Book
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Mapping Boston Edited by: Alex Krieger and David Cobb
with Amy Turner To the attentive user, even the simplest map can reveal not only where things are but how people perceive and imagine the spaces they occupy. Mapping Boston is an example of such creative attentiveness -- bringing the history of one of America's oldest and most beautiful cities alive through the maps that have depicted it over the centuries. The book includes both historical maps of the city and maps that show the gradual emergence of the New England region from the imaginations of explorers to a form that we would recognize today. Each map is accompanied by a full description and by a short essay offering an insight into its context. The topics of these essays by Anne Mackin include people both familiar and unknown, landmarks, and events that were significant in shaping the landscape or life of the city. A highlight of the book is a series of new maps detailing Boston's growth. The book also contains seven essays that explore the intertwining of maps and history. Urban historian Sam Bass Warner, Jr. starts with a capsule history of Boston. Barbara McCorkle, David Bosse, and David Cobb discuss the making and trading of maps from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Historical archaeologist Nancy S. Seasholes reviews the city's remarkable topographic history as reflected in maps, and planner Alex Krieger explores the relation between maps and the physical reality of the city as experienced by residents and visitors. In an epilogue, novelist James Carroll ponders the place of Boston in contemporary culture and the interior maps we carry of a city. Mapping Boston can be purchased at the MIT Press web site.
Alex Krieger is Chairman of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and and a principal of Chan Krieger & Associates, where Amy Turner is an architect. David Cobb is Head of the Harvard Map Collection at the Harvard College Library. |
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