Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston

摘要

According to Michael Rawson, the way in which many modern Americans relate to nature is a nineteenth-century construct that began with urban growth and more specifically with Boston's urbanisation. During the nineteenth century the city by the bay was in the forefront of 'developing progressive instruments of social and environmental reform such as parks, modern tenement houses, playgrounds, and water and sewer systems' (p. 15). Although the terminology differed from that of our modern day, Eden on the Charles makes it evident that reforms and public programmes that involved environmental concerns were close to the heart of a large number of Boston's reformers.