‘Eden’ traces the roads that led to Boston

October 13, 2010|Michael Patrick Brady

Bostonians of the 19th century believed they could transform their small town into a thriving, harmonious metropolis, and fought bitterly over how best to do it.

In “Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston,’’ Michael Rawson examines how the city’s relationship with its natural surroundings informed its early growth and development. His compelling, well-researched narrative touches on several milestones on Boston’s road to modernity, including the Common’s conversion from a place of labor to a place of leisure, the emergence of pastoral suburbs as a respite from an increasingly urbanized landscape, and the long fight over a proposed municipal water system to bring fresh water to those who needed it most. The people of Boston, argues Rawson, helped define the concept of urban living, and the choices they made in the struggle to harness their environment served as a model to others.

Underlying Rawson’s anecdotes about Boston’s interactions with nature is the debate between advocates for the common good, who believed government could be used to cure society’s ills, and defenders of individual liberty, who favored private enterprise and feared an increased tax burden. It’s a philosophical divide that had profound implications for the future of the city, and came to a head in the heated battle over Boston’s water woes.

“By the 1820s,’’ writes Rawson, “Boston’s patchwork system of private wells and cisterns and a single water company was failing.’’ Wealthy Bostonians could afford to have clean water piped directly to their homes, but the average citizen had to settle for well water contaminated by minerals and pollutants from nearby factories. Poor and working-class families hardly ever saw a drop. A major public health crisis loomed, and there was no question that access to clean water needed to be expanded. There was, however, intense disagreement over whether it should be accomplished through public or private means.