Walter Muir Whitehill's Boston: A Topographical History is an outstanding history of how the peninsula was shaved down, filled in and built up.How New England Happened, by Christina Tree is the definitive traveler's history of the region.A guide to Boston's historic and modern architecture is Susan & Michael Southworth's Boston Society of Architects' AIA Guide to Boston. It details general walking tours as well as specific buildings not only in the city, but also in Charlestown and Cambridge.Romance, adultery, hearts of darkness - no, it's not the newest Danielle Steel, but The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne's ode to the letter A.Henry James' The Bostonians is a classic portrait of love, money and women's lib in the Golden Age.For highbrow Boston and Cambridge in compendious detail, get Perry Miller's two-volume The New England Mind, or Bruce Kuklick's The Rise of American Philosophy.