A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900

A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston 1850-1900

Product Type: eBooks

Product Price: $23.95

Manufacturer: Beacon Press

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Description

Once upon a time, "Boston Town" was an insulated New England township. But the community was destined for greatness. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston underwent a stunning metamorphosis to emerge as one of the world's great metropolises-one that achieved national and international prominence in politics, medicine, education, science, social activism, literature, commerce, and transportation.
Long before the frustrations of our modern era, in which the notion of accomplishing great things often appears overwhelming or even impossible, Boston distinguished itself in the last half of the nineteenth century by proving it could tackle and overcome the most arduous of challenges and obstacles with repeated-and often resounding-success, becoming a city of vision and daring.
In A City So Grand, Stephen Puleo chronicles this remarkable period in Boston's history, in his trademark page-turning style. Our journey begins with the ferocity of the abolitionist movement of the 1850s and ends with the glorious opening of America's first subway station, in 1897. In between we witness the thirty-five-year engineering and city-planning feat of the Back Bay project, Boston's explosion in size through immigration and annexation, the devastating Great Fire of 1872 and subsequent rebuilding of downtown, and Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone utterance in 1876 from his lab at Exeter Place.
These lively stories and many more paint an extraordinary portrait of a half century of progress, leadership, and influence that turned a New England town into a world-class city, giving us the Boston we know today.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-05-13
Summary: "Proud to Live in Massachusetts"

Steven Puleo's new book "A City So Grand" is a historical love letter to Boston detailing the astounding amount of visionary thinking in that city during the last half of the nineteenth century. Puleo's pride in his hometown spills over into every paragraph and leaves a sweet taste in your mouth.

Boston was home to an impressive number of milestones of progressive thinking - most of the material Puleo covers involves major figures in the abolitionist movement before and during the Civil War. But I enjoyed the description of technological achievements even more. Filling of Back Bay was impressive enough - just that they could do it! - but the successful financing of this project was equally impressive. Many people know that Boston built the first subway in America, but I had never heard of the move from horse to electric power that preceded the building of the subway, which I thought was even more interesting. Invention of the telephone? Boston! First X-ray image in the U.S? Boston! Largest railroad station in the world at the turn of the century? Boston! (OK, I'll stop with the spoilers.)

What I came away with most is that the people making these decisions at that time were really "big thinkers" - the scope and scale of the things they attempted and achieved were on a grand scale and left us with some of the greatest features of the city. Stroll down the mall in the middle of Commonwealth Avenue or stand in the center of South Station and you'll see what I mean.

Any attempt to understand Boston would be incomplete without this material - read it, by all means.