BOSTON, 1776

Revolutionary Boston gets an engaging rogue’s tour.

After a lengthy introduction that covers the period from 1760 to the summer of 1776, author Dickey (Empire of Mud, 2014) starts his tour on July 4 at Long Wharf and ventures into each storied neighborhood of provincial Boston. What begins as a capsule history becomes a comprehensive Rick Steves-like travel guide—with its own wicked sense of place—culminating in the sort of practical advice travelers could use during an 18th-century visit. Dickey strolls from the North End and Harborside to the town center, the Common, the South and West Ends, and beyond to give the reader a sense of the city’s layout. He explores the rowdy taverns, famous assembly halls, secret meeting places, bookshops, brothels, and scenes of disease, destruction, and rebirth. Along the way we meet Whigs and Tories, smugglers and insurgents, agitators and clergy, as well as citizen soldiers, and we learn of key battles and setbacks. Of course, the author also focuses on all the most renowned local players in the drama of revolt, from John Hancock and Paul Revere to John and Abigail Adams. Dickey crams three books’ worth of facts, reflections, and anecdotes into 320 well-paced, colorful pages, illustrated by a wealth of street maps, period engravings, and other artwork. He also touches on the surprising persistence of Puritan attitudes that set the town apart from the cultures of its New York and Philadelphia brethren. As a coda, the author celebrates his cheeky “250th anniversary edition” of the book by contrasting Boston circa 1776 with the current, cosmopolitan incarnation, locating the two-dozen tourist sites and structures that survive.

A lively, immersive sojourn through the old capital of Massachusetts.