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make when they reinvent themselves, and the beneficiaries may not always be those who are a permanent part of the city’s fabric. Then, of course, there is always the question of authenticity, one that is raised most prominently in Cowan’s discussion of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor project. Initiated in 1978 and modeled after the concepts behind the reimagining of Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston and using the same developer, the Rouse Company, Baltimore hoped for similar success in repurposing its long-neglected waterfront. Some bemoan projects like Baltimore’s Inner Harbor as the “Disneyfication” of authentic urban landscapes. Cowan notes that festival marketplaces, “have come to embody . . . the worst excesses of the postindustrial city” (p. 151). Critics of Harborplace and similar developments say festival marketplaces have little to offer the minority residents that are most frequently displaced to create them. But tourists do not seem to have as much angst about such destinations as do academicians. When it comes down to it, tourists often prefer standardization over authenticity. Hopes that Harborplace would offer a venue to support a diverse and local retail base were dashed when its floor space became increasingly occupied by national retailers and franchises. You know a destination has lost its local flavor when there is a ribbon cutting at a new Cheesecake Factory. Rouse Company projects in other cities, including Toledo, Ohio and Richmond, Virginia, have failed to deliver a cure-all for urban decline. Cowan outlines three reasons why festival marketplaces have not lived up to expectations: (a) lack of local shoppers to sustain retailers during nontourist seasons, (b) absence of complementary destinations that connect to the festival marketplace visitors, and (c) failure of developments to connect to waterfronts or a “city’s front door.” Overall, A Nice Place to Visit is a nice book to read, but I do have a few minor quibbles. There are a few editorial glitches, including a paragraph that is nearly repeated wordfor-word on pages 143 and 147 but with different citations. A map would have been warmly welcomed. The underpinnings of Cowan’s arguments are inherently spatial and understanding the locational relationships between say, the St. Louis Convention Center and the aggrieved African American North Side neighborhood, would have been better understood with the inclusion of a simple map of the area. Cowan does an admirable job of discussing race, postwar suburbanization, and the shifting form and function of downtowns, but there is little mention of gendered spaces. For example, the author addresses shopper dissatisfaction with downtown department stores, but fails to connect the preferences for shopping centers with women’s consumer behavior. Women, the most likely customers of a department store, helped create and reinforce suburban shopping landscapes. Although Cowan’s critique of tourism and urban redevelopment in the Rust Belt is written from the perspective of a historian, I would be comfortable using this book for assigned reading in an urban or economic geography class. In fact, it would be a pleasant read for anyone interested in urban tourism. The book itself is a nice place to visit. Cowan’s narrative is conversational and engaging as well as scholarly—no mean feat. It is also very timely, given the author’s attention to racial disparities and lingering tensions in cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore.