There have been many books written about Boston, but none with more information so charmingly and accurately written...[There are] riches packed between the hard covers of this book, excellently conceived and excellently created.
-- Boston Globe

Whitehill's scholarship is both profound and far-reaching...In short, this is an admirable contribution to the growing literature of American urbanism.
-- Leonard K. Eaton Progressive Architecture

[Boston: A Topographical History] is a lively history of the city from its founding up through the mid-1960s, the age of the so-called New Boston. Whitehill clarifies such mysteries as the name Tremont, which refers to the three hills--Pemberton, Beacon, and Mount Vernon--that once stood where the now much-reduced Beacon Hill remains. With this book, graced with useful old maps and engravings, you can understand that Canal Street followed the bank of Mill Creek, Causeway Street was once a causeway across the old mill pond, and West Hill Place (near Charles Circle) was once a small hill by the Back Bay.
-- David Mehegan Boston Globe Magazine

Over the years Boston has played an important role in American history and consequently a topographical history of the city is of more than local interest...In an informed and witty manner, [Whitehill] traces the history of Boston by means of the physical and resultant social changes which have affected the city...[this history has been] delightfully...told in this attractive book.
-- James J. Heslin New York Historical Society Quarterly

Short, living, and admirably illustrated...What we have is a most learned and entertaining guide to the past and present of Boston.
-- Times Literary Supplement

A good companion, pleasingly written, informative and entertaining, and copiously illustrated.
-- Nicholas B. Wainwright New England Quarterly