A sparkling time capsule of early 20th-century America, where cities still possessed the distinct flavors and customs that made each one unmistakably itself. Edward Hungerford spent four years traveling from coast to coast, returning again and again to cities that fascinated him, determined to capture what he calls their "personalities", the collective temperament, the unspoken rules, the architectural soul that made Boston Boston and New York New York. The result reads like a series of intimate portraits painted with wit and genuine curiosity. He observes Boston's stiff social etiquette with the eye of an amused outsider, noting how its formality masks a deep courtesy; he traces how each city's built environment reflects its character. These are cities on the cusp of modernity, still carrying their 19th-century legacies while facing the pressures of a new century. For readers who love urban history, vintage travel writing, or understanding how American cities once defined themselves before interstate highways and suburban sprawl flattened our national character.
