We discuss Boston’s economic, geographic, and political expansion in the 17th century with Mark Peterson, Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University, and the author of the recent masterpiece The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865. Peterson is also the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.
Readings:
Mug battle question (courtesy of Mark Peterson):
Which of the following Boston landmarks would have been under water at the time of Boston’s founding in 1630?
a. The public garden; b. Logan airport; c. Quincy Market; d. The Prudential Center; e. North Station.
Answer: All of them! A number of students got the answer through impressive research on The Birth of Boston and/or the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map Center. Congratulations to Hikari Shaver for winning it in a showdown!
Further reading: For those who want to read further on this topic, I highly recommend reading all of Peterson’s The City-State of Boston (and for those who just want to read a little bit further, the rest of Book One, “Render unto Caesar”).