Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900. 2d Ed (208p)

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Summary: The History of Dorchester, Roxbury and West Roxbury
Review: All ye people of the Parkways! Read all about the history of suburban Boston. It's all good! This is a scholarly study of the history of Roxbury, Dorchester, and West Roxbury (which includes Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Mattapan, and Hyde Park.) Have you ever wondered why Washington Street in Roslindale looks the way it does? Why one street has mansions and the next has turn of the century boarders? And why does the bus run down one street and not another? Find out in Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston. Cambridge tip: you can find cheapie copies of this book at the Harvard Press Bookstore. That's how I got mine.

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: This book is important to anyone wanting to understand why the streetcar industry was such an imporant force in shaping America's cities. While it uses Boston as a case study, you can apply the same ideas in hundreds of cities and see how the same thing happened. Streetcars were the boom/bust speculative industry of their era, just as "dot-bombs" were the boom/bust of the recent era. Of course, real estate speculaton lives on, but street railways are no longer the tool.