THE 2023-24 ONE BOOK SELECTION IS HERE!
The College of Arts and Sciences has selected author Dierdre Mask’s book The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power as the 2023-24 academic year selection for One Book, One University.
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
by Dierdre Mask
St. Martin’s Griffin, 2020
This book explores how addresses and street names are connected to identity, wealth, race, and power. For example, simply having an address is a form of power, which is explained through examples of how governments and other organizations link addresses to services, and how an address bestows various social, political, and economic benefits.
Chapters are based around specific locales, using storytelling to explore these themes through historical and contemporary examples. Featuring cities in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Africa, plus countries like Iran, Japan, Korea, and Haiti, the book explores the shared histories of addressing, street naming, and urban planning in local and international communities.
Deirdre Mask is a writer and lawyer who has taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Economist, Lit Hub, The Harvard Law Review, The New Hibernia Review, The Dublin Review, and Irish Pages. She is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the National University of Ireland, where she completed a master’s in writing. Originally from North Carolina, she lives in London with her husband and daughters.
The Address Book was a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction and was listed among the Top 10 Books of 2020 by Publishers Weekly.
