Daniel Dain- A History of Boston

Boston is today one of the world’s greatest cities, first in higher education, hospitals, life science companies, and sports teams. It was the home of the Great Puritan Migration, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the first civil rights movement, the abolition movement, and the women’s rights movement. But the city that gave us the first use of ether as anesthesia, the telephone, technicolor film, and the mutual fund—the city where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott founded their world-changing partnership—was also the hub of the anti-immigration movement, the divisive busing era, and decades of self-inflicted decay. Boston has the most important history of any American city. Yet its history has never been given a comprehensive treatment until now. In A History of Boston, Dan Dain takes us from the arrival of First Peoples up to the election of Boston’s first woman and person of color as mayor. Along the way he explores the policies and practices that took Boston from its highest heights to its lowest lows and back again, and examines the central role that density, diversity, and good urban design play in the success of cities like Boston.   Daniel Dain was born in Boston and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Vassar College and University of Michigan Law School, he’s spent his professional career as a lawyer in Boston, working with commercial property owners and developers on issues related to their use and development of real estate. Dan writes and lectures widely on land use law and urban planning and is the founder and president of the law firm Dain Torpy, where he chairs the firm’s real estate litigation practice. He is the manager of an equity fund that invests in independent local restaurants, a co-founder and treasurer of the Needham Land Trust, and is a board member of the business advocacy groups NAIOP of Massachusetts and A Better City, as well as the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture. Dan also chairs the arts company White Snake Projects and the Massachusetts Real Estate Bar Association’s Litigation Section. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts with his wife and two kids.