Marshes were filled & summits sliced off to make a remarkable city on a hill. Repeatedly prophets of doom mourned at the bier of Boston as proper Bostonians saw their children becoming less proper, as businesses & industries collapsed, as upstart Irish politicians took over the government, as Catholic churchgoers displaced Brahmin Unitarians. From its beginnings with some 150 settlers on the narrow Shawmut peninsula to Mayor Ray Flynn's appraisal of the state of the city in 1991, Boston emerges as a tough, flexible city. As the author says, "Boston has survived economic crises that have transformed other communities into ghost towns....For more than three hundred years, Boston has demonstrated an unsual ability to assimilate the old with the new, the traditional with the progressive, blending the past with the present in a style all its own." In the hands of a learned historian, Boston's story offers the authority of scholarship, leavened & livened with wit. Great history, engrossing entertainment. Available through Publisher's Sales Office---666 Boyleston Street, Boston, MA 02116, Tele-(617) 536-5400, xt 346.