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The Boston Foundation commissioned The Good City to provide a fresh image of Boston for newcomers to the city, such as those attending the Democratic National Convention and newly arriving college and university students. Full of established writers and fresh voices, a rich collection of essays celebrates Boston's past, present, and future.

This collection presents a vivid new portrait of Boston through the writing of fifteen of the city's finest authors. Fresh eyes are cast upon the urban landscape and psyche, with provocative pieces by architecture critics Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay, and Jack Beatty on Boston's political past and present. Boston has long been known as a literary city, but novelist Patricia Powell offers a new take on the literary landscape and the immigrant experience. Susan Orlean offers up a loving tribute to the city she left and then returned to. Best-selling novelist Anita Diamant celebrates her discovery of a true spiritual home in Boston, while Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner investigates what makes Boston a powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation. All Souls author Michael Patrick MacDonald pens a moving essay on gentrification and what it means to old neighborhoods like Southie, while Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson looks at Boston as a laboratory for advancing race relations. No book about Boston would be complete without a discussion of sports, so Howard Bryant, author of Shut Out and columnist for the Boston Herald, explains the city's recreational obsession. All of these writers and more offer an illuminating profile of the city that many people consider the birthplace of America.