| Book Review | Environmental History, 9.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to Enviromental History online. About 221 words from this article are provided below; about 381 words remain.

If you are a individual subscriber to Environmental History, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a subscriber to the Environmental History, you can:: • get subscription information here.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of Environmental History (8.1-present).
Instititutions can:: • get subscription information here to receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | Environmental History, 9.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. By Nancy S. Seasholes. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. xiv + 533 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. $49.95.
The growth of American cities has always required dramatic transformations of their natural environments. Hills, ravines, rivers, marshes, deserts—the irregular in nature must be leveled (often literally so) to speed the march of commerce. Seattle hosed away a major hill, Providence buried (and later disinterred) a river, and Chicago ... well Chicago has pursued nearly every possible method to tame its swampy environs.	1
But Nancy Seasholes argues in Gaining Ground that Boston wins the prize for the sheer quantity of new land that has been made, most often by filling tidal flats, marshes, and other low-lying wet areas. The original Shawmut peninsula from which the city expanded is now almost 50 percent larger than it was when Europeans settled there in 1630. Seasholes has scoured a huge array of original documents, including hundreds of maps, company archives, and public records in order to reconstruct in incredible detail the history of Boston's landmaking projects over more than three centuries. Trained in both history and archeology, she also makes extensive use of the physical evidence of modern archeological explorations to document the changing technologies adopted to turn wet areas into dry, buildable land.	. . .

There are about 381 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.