The Address Book

What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

By: Deirdre Mask

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

An extraordinary debut in the tradition of classic works from authors such as Mark Kurlansky, Mary Roach, and Rose George.

An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity.

When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.

In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the way finding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London.

Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t - and why.

©2020 Deirdre Mask (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Janina Edwards narrates this globe-trotting and highly informed work in a fluid style. Edwards acts as a tour guide who leads the listener from India to Haiti, London to Manhattan, and skillfully renders the numerous people the listener meets along the journey. Her performance deftly captures the broad interests and wide-angle lens of the author." —AudioFile Magazine

Interesting, but…

I almost couldn’t finish listening to this book because the reading was so annoying. She sounds like a computer reading.

Excellent read

Wow! I learned so much! So fascinating to think about how something many of us take for granted —our address— was created, effects our lives, plus add in race, politics, marketing, etc.

Excellent nonfiction

Well written, interesting, and thought provoking. The Address Book is a combination of a look at the history of addresses and current research related to the same.

Who would have known street addressing would be interesting!!

I found this book to be very interesting, informative and enlightening. I had read some of the reviews before I started listening and yes the author does go off track a few times.

Address Book

Interesting, and in parts intriguing and well researched, but overall too uneven. Some chapters seemed simplistic, and less satisfying. Narration is good.

interesting book - narration not great

Book with fairly interesting content, but somehow felt patchy. Narration didn't help as the narrator slightyl mumbled which really showed up playing faster than 1 (i usually listen at 2.35, but due to the mumbling I could only lisstenn at 1.9, so the book felt a lot loooonger than it should.

Worst part of the book was a particularly glowing and fawning section on Bobby Sands. While his death did have huge repercussions that lead many years later to peace there was almost no mention of his many murders of civilian people. In fact lots of positive info on terrorists. most odd for a book about street addresses. Particularly when equally keen on confederate names being removed in the US due to their human rights abuses. so a very mixed bag overall. Felt like the authors blindspots were enormous.

I really didnt expect to be so unpleasantly confronted about murder in a book about addresses. Normally the unexpected is good, but pro terrorists? no

An Unexpected Perspective

I expected that this book would dissect the address (zip code) linkage with inequalities of various types in America. What Deidre Mask delivered was so much more: a globe-trotting reportage of perspectives on defining how humans see public spaces in various ways. Well worth the time invested

Great research with a great narrative

I learned so much and across several different disciplines all with the common link of addresses. As a local history and genealogy librarian at a public library this touched on several topics that are close to me, like addresses on vital records, street name changes, homelessness, etc. I enjoyed this book and will definitely be sharing it with others!

Interesting topic

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book but it was definitely interesting. A few things I knew about but learned some new details with every chapter.

Fascinating and Thought Provoking

‘The Address Book’ was fascinating and thought provoking. Addresses are something most of us give little thought to but contain so much in them. They often reflect our societal values and connect us to governments, services, and even jobs. Mask uses excellent examples to support her points about identity, race, wealth, and power in this well-organized text. Mask writes in a way that is very accessible, entertaining, eye-opening, and often thought-provoking. Some parts had me laughing so hard, like the chapter that included possibly offensive British street names; and then had me considering the persisting legacy of the Confederacy in the United States following the Civil War or how best we can prevent catastrophic diseases from spreading by using addresses. This book covers so many different topics all over the world.