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The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
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72
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
56/100Critics
87/100Scholars
Author:
Deirdre Mask
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
Date:
April 14, 2020
A work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.
What The Reviewers Say
Structurally, narrative nonfiction tends to work either like a freight train (progressing in a straight line from Point A to Point B) or like a horseback rider (jumping fences to gallop across fields of unwieldy facts); count Mask among the horsy set. The Address Book is her first book, and she is already a master at shoehorning in fascinating yet barely germane detours just for kicks.
... charming and engaging.
Engaging, illuminating, and with highly relevant current subject matter, this book is recommended for all readers, especially fans of popular history and politics..
Addresses might seem a prosaic subject to write a book about. But read Deirdre Mask’s fascinating deep dive into the world of Mill Lane and Martin Luther King Street and you will begin to realise just how important these geographical markers are, how pregnant with meaning, and what a difference they make to everything from the proper functioning of society to questions of wealth, poverty and democracy.
