This truly fascinating book is a detailed chronicle of a district rich in meaning for architect, planner, historian, sociologist and lover of Americana ... With it all, insights are gained into the mores of those marvelous Bostonians and their equally marvelous city.
-- American Institute of Architects Journal
Here is an excellent book. Although parts of residential Back Bay are now a century old, surprisingly little has been written about this brightest jewel in Boston's crown. So the book is twice welcome. Mr. Bunting...writes with authority yet with a clarity of style that makes for delightful reading.
-- Edgar Packard Dean New England Quarterly
Bunting has made a distinguished contribution to cultural history in his perceptive use of domestic architecture to reflect and interpret the customs, ideas, and interests of an American generation in a setting peculiarly favorable for such a study.
-- Madeleine Hook Rice Journal of American History
An immensely detailed but never tedious account of the development of a district celebrated for the intellectual and financial eminence of its inhabitants.
-- Royal Institute of British Architects