Rawson, Michael. Eden on the Charles.

Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2010. In it, Rawson writes, “It is always hard to say that there’s a particular culture in one city that’s had continuity over centuries, but it’s more possible to say it of Boston. It’s a place where the search for environmental permanence was born, at least for America, versus just tearing things down. Boston led the charge in developing an appreciation of historical land and historical buildings.” Also: “It was the state legislature that first locked Boston permanently behind its present municipal boundaries, creating a belt of independent suburbs beyond it, and then established metropolitan water, sewer, and park systems to bring unity where it had previously encouraged fragmentation.”