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Product Description An informative—and beautiful—exploration of the life and history of a city through its maps. 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 exemplar 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 showing 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. Historian 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. From Library Journal This is not merely a remarkable corpus of period maps--it is a historical atlas of the physical, cultural, and historical evolution of Boston from its beginnings to the present day. Editors Krieger (urban planning and design, Harvard Univ.) and Cobb (head of the Harvard Map Collection) have gathered together a critical mass of map curators, architects, urban historians, and historical archaeologists to explore this history; their informative essays accompany 270 maps, portraits, aerial photographs, and other illustrations. In addition to an excellent index, the book also boasts "A Boston Chronology" that refers to relevant plates. An unusual and handsome resource, this book is highly recommended for all public and academic libraries--particularly those with emphases on cartography, Colonial America, or New England history collections. For a preview of the maps and the publication itself, visit (www.mappingboston.com). -Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Sys., Ft. Pierce, FL Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review "What a marvelous and immensely welcome book! The collection of maps is surpassing, and to have them so beautifully published in combination with such superb essays is cause for celebration for everyone who loves Boston and loves history. "Mapping Boston" is a perfect treasure."--David McCullough & quot; What a marvelous and immensely welcome book! The collection of maps is surpassing, and to have them so beautifully published in combination with such superb essays is cause for celebration for everyone who loves Boston and loves history. Mapping Boston is a perfect treasure.& quot; -- David McCullough " What a marvelous and immensely welcome book! The collection of maps is surpassing, and to have them so beautifully published in combination with such superb essays is cause for celebration for everyone who loves Boston and loves history. Mapping Boston is a perfect treasure." -- David McCullough Review What a marvelous and immensely welcome book! The collection of maps is surpassing, and to have them so beautifully published in combination with such superb essays is cause for celebration for everyone who loves Boston and loves history. Mapping Boston is a perfect treasure.― David McCullough From the Back Cover "To the atten