Jim McPherson - Author - "Downton Phoenix"

To answer all those naysayers who blurt out, “Phoenix has no history,” au contraire, it does… and there’s a new book out on just that topic. “Downtown Phoenix” is chockfull of historical photographs (some never seen in the public eye), is a darn good primer and an interesting read to boot. The authors Seth Anderson, Suad Mahmuljin, and Jim McPherson will be guests on today’s show and we are sure to learn about a history of Phoenix that few of us know. Through its images, “Downtown Phoenix” in part tells how each generation of Phoenicians dealt with living in a desert, dating back to the first wave of settlers during the mid-1800s, said Jim McPherson, one of the book’s co-authors. “We wanted to focus on downtown and its unique place in the history of Arizona,” McPherson said, who is also president of the Arizona Preservation Foundation and has lived in Phoenix for 20 years. “We looked at (the book) from a standpoint of, here’s a city that many people think is relatively new, but has a significant history going back to Hohokams.”