Boston's "Changeful Times" chronicles the relationship between historic preservation, planning, and the desire for permanence in Boston during the years from 1860 to 1930. Michael Holleran describes Boston as a city aware of its prominent Puritan and Revolutionary history and proud of its role as guardian of the past through institutions such as the Athenaeum and the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Exploring Boston's struggles to save now-famous land-marks such as the Old South Church and Boston Common, Holleran traces the preservation movement's growth from its focus on saving historic buildings to its involvement in preserving public green spaces and addressing other large-scale urban issues. He describes subdivision design innovations and the use of deed restrictions, limits on building heights, and neighborhood zoning protection to control ever-increasing urban growth.

Holleran concludes that the tools invented for stopping change proved even more powerful for shaping change. New York City drew on Boston's experience to create the first comprehensive zoning ordinance which, by the end of the 1920s, had fundamentally altered the city-building process. As preservationists, environmentalists, and planners today discover common ground, Holleran concludes, they are in effect rediscovering the shared origins of their-separate movements.

A history of preservation, real estate development, city planning, and Boston's urban development, Boston's "Changeful Times" will appeal to readers curious to learn more about how and why America's cities came to look the way they do.