This is very good book about the City of Boston, as it was developed in stages. The Book explains the development and expansion of the city in time and according to location. It is very vivid and especially if you have been a pedestrian offen on the streets of Boston, It starts to make sense and starts to give joy. As I read the book I started to appreciate more and more the efforts of BRA and Back Bay Society.unfortunately before they acted quite a number of beautiful structures has gone.Book has very extensive history from 1700 to 1970's and than it is summary or may be it is a living history for you. There are numerous pictures but the number of pictures is not as much as those you may find in other types of books, like Boston in Pictures, etc. After all it is a narrative book but there is sufficient amount of pictures to help you visulize. I wish a more comprehensive book were to be produces to show in same pages all the developments, similar to "Boston, Than and Now" but with more older pictures and more story as this book has. Read this book and sit across the Charles on Cambridge Side than you start to see Trimont, Mill Dam, Neck. It is great book.

This book is ideal for anyone looking for a general account of Boston history. It acquants one with many of the important stages in the development of the city; covering the period from the colonial to approximately 1970. The information regarding the colonial period is excellent, as is the book itself. It is not specific, but provides an introduction to many great way points for further study.

This book is a fascinating account of how Boston grew and developed. It stays on the point, is concise, and really improves the understanding of this city. A must read for a Bostonian.

Kennedy's research for this book was funded by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) for whom he also served as consulting historian. Hence, the strength of this book lies in its focus on city planning in the 20th century.

The first 100 pages are devoted to the period from 1630-1900, but anybody with a special interest in that period is better off with Walter Muir Whitehill's "Boston - A Topographical History".

Kennedy's writing about the 20th century also is more animated. Chapers follow administration (Fitzgerald, Curley, Collins, White & Flynn) and Kennedy gives a very readable account of the development of urban city planning in Boston and how it has been helped (and hindered) by politics. As is to be expected, the City Planning Board's and BRA's history and involvement in planning are treated in some detail.