The Address Book, Deirdre Mask
The Address Book, Deirdre Mask
2 Rating(s)
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The Address Book
What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

Author: Deirdre Mask

Narrator: Janina Edwards

Unabridged: 8 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/14/2020

Synopsis

An extraordinary debut in the tradition of classic works from authors such as Mark Kurlansky, Mary Roach, and Rose George.An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class. In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t—and why.

About Deirdre Mask

Deirdre Mask graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude, and attended University of Oxford before returning to Harvard for law school, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She completed a master’s in writing at the National University of Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. Originally from North Carolina, she has taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics. She lives with her husband and daughters in London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Anne on May 19, 2020

I picked up this urban-planning adjacent book at the suggestion of multiple readers who knew of my obsession with the subject. Mask's thorough exploration of the hidden history and meanings of the street address take her all the way from ancient Rome to contemporary U.S. cities. I found this fascina......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on June 26, 2020

This is gonna be a mediocre review because I did a mediocre job of reading this book. I found The Address Book a fascinating examination of the power of addresses and how they shape our lives. Like most if not everything, even possessing an address relates to how much privilege and power you have in......more

Goodreads review by Audrey on March 02, 2020

Maybe like 4.75 stars but who cares. Love love love love love love love. This book was everything I was hoping it would be and so much more. Sometimes I just have the urge to learn a butt-load about a random topic and this book delivered in the form of street addresses. It was so fascinating and inf......more

Goodreads review by Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship on November 27, 2020

This is a fun, informative, wide-ranging and highly readable book, all centered on street addresses. Mask draws from an admirably broad range of material, leaping from the difficulties of navigation in rural West Virginia causing ambulances to go astray to the local government of Kolkata refusing to......more

Goodreads review by David on February 14, 2020

The simple street address is not only a relatively new concept, it is controversial everywhere it is implemented. Deirdre Mask has spent years traveling and discovering how people get on without addresses, how different implementations work (or don't), how addresses have figured in history, and how......more

Quotes

"Janina Edwards narrates this globe-trotting and highly informed work in a fluid style. Edwards acts as a tour guide who leads the listener from India to Haiti, London to Manhattan, and skillfully renders the numerous people the listener meets along the journey. Her performance deftly captures the broad interests and wide-angle lens of the author."
—AudioFile Magazine

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