A review of

The Address Book

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

Deirdre Mask • St. Martin’s Press • 2020

The review below was first published in the getAbstract Journal on Jan 26, 2022.
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Names and Numbers

by David Meyer

Deirdre Mask provides an unlikely fascinating history, overview and cultural analysis of street addresses.

If you crave a comprehensive history of postal addresses – don’t laugh, you might – this finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, Goodreads Choice Award, Porchlight Business Book award and one of Time magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 should satisfy your deepest desires. Former Harvard Law Review editor Deirdre Mask turns out to be a sparkling, entertaining writer who makes this potentially soporific subject fascinating.

She sketches major historical turning points and unearths quirky trivia while tackling thought-provoking issues – such as how assigning house numbers enhances government’s power, how street names influence property values and how the lack of an address traps millions of people in poverty worldwide.

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