What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
audio cd
Published April 14, 2020 by Brilliance Audio.
An exuberant work of popular history: the story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power.
In a 2013 article for The Atlantic, Deirdre Mask documented the efforts by West Virginia to give addresses to all its rural residents, allowing them access to goods and services they never had, whether it was a box from Amazon or state benefits. Mask’s research for that article plunged her into the fascinating history of addresses, taking her from ancient Rome to 19th century New York City to present day Korea. We learn that the practice of numbering individual houses began in 18th century Vienna by Maria Theresa, leader of the Hapsburg Empire, not for helping her subjects navigate the city or receive mail, but rather to tax them and draft them into her military. In …
An exuberant work of popular history: the story of how streets got their names and houses their numbers, and why something as seemingly mundane as an address can save lives or enforce power.
In a 2013 article for The Atlantic, Deirdre Mask documented the efforts by West Virginia to give addresses to all its rural residents, allowing them access to goods and services they never had, whether it was a box from Amazon or state benefits. Mask’s research for that article plunged her into the fascinating history of addresses, taking her from ancient Rome to 19th century New York City to present day Korea. We learn that the practice of numbering individual houses began in 18th century Vienna by Maria Theresa, leader of the Hapsburg Empire, not for helping her subjects navigate the city or receive mail, but rather to tax them and draft them into her military. In 19th century London, Mask recounts the story of Dr. John Snow, who used the city's recently introduced street numbers to help identify the source and spread of a cholera epidemic. In the present day, Mask travels from India to Korea to Ireland, tracing the different ways street names are created, celebrated, and in some cases, banned.
Filled with fascinating people and histories, this incisive, entertaining book shows how street names are about identity, class, and race. But most of all they are about power: the power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t, and why.
This book did make me think much more about addresses. A couple of the wide-ranging chapters made me think and taught me interesting history and made me think (for instance, the invention of numbers in the Austrian Empire and their implications). But others seemed to be stretching it, and treading familiar ground at great length (a brief history of apartheid and how streets named for confederate generals are controversial).
This was a fun read with an interesting dive into the way that addressing impacts our lives as well as the way that our daily existence is informed by addressing. Honestly, never thought much about addressing at all and this gave a really fun non-fiction read.
What an amazing book!
Simply a must-read for anyone involved in public administration.
One of the nicest things about the book is that it isn't just focussed on the White Western World. It goes from the slums of Kolkata to the revolutionary streets of China. It's a stunning exploration of the tiniest administrative details all the way up to war crimes.
I had no idea of the history of addresses - nor how they've been used to empower and repress people in equal measure. The way people get so worked up over what seems like a minor administrative detail is extraordinary. And yet, at the same time, completely understandable. These scribbles on a map define so much about our lives - and we barely ever discuss their origins or their purpose.
The book zooms through history - from antiquity and into the future - at a rapid pace. I felt …
What an amazing book!
Simply a must-read for anyone involved in public administration.
One of the nicest things about the book is that it isn't just focussed on the White Western World. It goes from the slums of Kolkata to the revolutionary streets of China. It's a stunning exploration of the tiniest administrative details all the way up to war crimes.
I had no idea of the history of addresses - nor how they've been used to empower and repress people in equal measure. The way people get so worked up over what seems like a minor administrative detail is extraordinary. And yet, at the same time, completely understandable. These scribbles on a map define so much about our lives - and we barely ever discuss their origins or their purpose.
The book zooms through history - from antiquity and into the future - at a rapid pace. I felt like I'd seen the world and lived through the court-cases which shape our domestic geography. It's an outstanding set of investigations into an often overlooked piece of street furniture.
A small disclaimer - the author briefly interviewed me about my blog post "Why bother with What Three Words?" and quoted me in her conclusion. Which was a lovely surprise.
enjoyed this but def read a a series of magazine articles, all about addresses.
the extremely speculative final chapter around google and w3w made me mad and def knocked this down a star, everything else was a fun new yorker-y tour of critical geography around addresses
very fun to read! I was surprised it felt a bit disjointed as each chapter is pretty separate. But this book is filled with fun histories and the author is clearly super smart, both noticable from her elegant style and diction, as well as her nuanced takes on history and politics.
