Boston and the Making of a Global City
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Massachusetts Press
Publishing:25th Jul '25
£25.99
This title is due to be published on 25th July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£82.00(9781625348630)
In the late twentieth century the American and global economy shifted from manufacturing toward a knowledge industry. Following an economic low point several decades earlier, the city of Boston took advantage of the new era of globalization, fueled by dramatic advances in telecommunications, computer power, and air and sea travel, as well as its own impressive intellectual capital.
Boston and the Making of a Global City pulls together scholarship, media stories, personal interviews, and city planning documents to tell the story of Boston’s historical trajectory, as it quickly became a competitive global hub. Starting with its role as a colonial port and nineteenth-century maritime power, but moving quickly forward, the book describes how Boston capitalized on its strengths in higher education and such innovation sectors as life sciences, healthcare, information technology, and finance. Author James O’Connell traces the historical sweep of global flows—trade and supply chains, innovation and the dissemination of knowledge, investment, transportation, tourism, telecommunications, and immigration—that have shaped the city and region’s development. This volume also addresses the economic, social, and environmental challenges that Boston currently faces and how it is strategically positioned to confront them going forward.
“O’Connell offers a comprehensive account of Boston as a participant in the global economy, including an assessment of Boston’s significance in this context. This book will be useful to journalists covering the region; professionals promoting the region; and students and faculty studying the region.”—Richard Freeland, author of Transforming the Urban University: Northeastern, 1996–2006
"The rise of global cities is often seen as a recent development. Using Boston as a case study, James C. O’Connell offers a deeper analysis of globalization that shows the interconnections of past and present. From the maritime trade of colonial Boston to today’s biotech sector, O’Connell shows us what made the city innovative and prosperous, but also how it fuels social inequality that threatens to undermine the region’s success."—Marilynn S. Johnson, author of The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Region Since the 1960s
“What is a global city anyway? This excellent book gets urbanists to revisit and rethink this idea through the lens of Boston—an east coast US city that seems both provincial yet global at the same time. O’Connell does a great job exposing Boston’s global-ness but does this mean it really is a global city?”—Loretta Lees, Director of the Initiative on Cities and Professor of Sociology, Boston University
"Boston is the only city in the world where three major companies did much of their innovative work to successfully develop Covid-19 vaccines. Why Boston? O’Connell brilliantly pulls together what drives Boston to be among the most technologically and medically innovative cities globally.”—Robert M. Krim, author of Boston Made: From Revolution to Robotics, Innovations that Changed the World
ISBN: 9781625348623
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
260 pages