City in Time: Boston

by Jeffrey Hantover, Gilbert King (Photographs)

Boston is one of America’s very first cities, a place wonderfully rich in history and culture. From the Arnold Arboretum to Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park to the Old North Church (made famous in Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”), see the town as it once was and as it is today. Visit the African Meeting House, a center for the 19th century Black community and now a museum.  Relax in Boston Common, the oldest urban park in the U.S. where men once fought duels; it remains the green heart of the city with a skating rink and bandstand. Go through transformed neighborhoods like Roxbury and Beacon Hill, Boston’s many universities, and the houses of the great statesmen—some of which have been beautifully restored. 

144 pages, Hardcover

First published June 3, 2008

About the author

Jeffrey Hantover was born and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from Harvard College, attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government and received a Masters in Sociology of Education and PhD in Sociology from the University of Chicago. He taught sociology at Vanderbilt University, was the director of a national social service agency in New York, and held senior positions in labor rights compliance for a major American clothing company. Jeffrey lived in Hong Kong for twelve years where he wrote on Asian art and culture. It was while in Hong Kong that he began work on The Jewel Trader of Pegu. He now lives in New York with his wife Mee-Seen Loong. He is currently working on another novel.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book on Boston history. For each building or site, there is a photo from the past on the left-hand page and one from the present on the right. I especially liked when the photos were from the same perspective, so that I could examine them to see any alterations. A few had changed so much, or were from such different perspectives that it was difficult to relate them. I would also have appreciated dates on the 'past' photos, to place the photo within the history of the site - obviously, since some of them date to pre-Revolutionary times, there were no photos from the beginning! There are also some more miscellaneous pages, about food, sports, movies/TV shows set in Boston, etc. I enjoyed this look into Boston's past and how it has changed.