OVERVIEW OF BOSTON

Although the metropolitan area of Boston has long since expanded to fill the shoreline of Massachusetts Bay, and stretches for miles inland as well, the 17th century port at its heart is still discernible. Forget the neat grids of modern urban America; the twisting streets clustered around Boston Common are a reminder of how the nation started out, and the city is enjoyably human in scale.

Boston was, until 1755, the biggest city in America; as the one most directly affected by the latest…