Full of established writers and fresh voices, a rich collection of essays celebrates Boston's past, present, and future

The Good City presents a vivid new profile of Boston through the work of fifteen of the city's finest writers.

• Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay on Boston's embrace of lively urban density
 
• James Miller on the city's intellectual history
 
• Jack Beatty on Boston's colorful political past and present
 
• Patricia Powell on the literary landscape and the immigrant experience
 
• Susan Orlean on the city she left and now loves
 
• John Hanson Mitchell on how nature revives the metropolis
 
• Anita Diamant on Boston as a spiritual home
 
• Scott Kirsner on Boston as a powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation
 
• Alan Chong on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the arts in Boston
 
• Lynda Morgenroth on the city's neighborhoods
 
• Michael Patrick MacDonald on gentrification and what it means to old neighborhoods like Southie
 
• Derrick Jackson on Boston as a laboratory for advancing race relations
 
• Howard Bryant on the city's obsession with sports
 
• Irene Smalls on seeing the city through the eyes of a child.