Toponymy (the scientific study of placenames) need not be dry science. Here Prof. Ashley (whom Distinguished Prof. Kelsie B. Harder in prefatory remarks calls "indeed the foremost authority in the study of names") ranges widely over Amerindian names of Massachusetts and several other states, the British-influenced placenames of Connecticut, saints' names on the land of Cornwall, French surnames for the English derived from placenames, the varied placenames of the east (Vermont) and of the Midwest (Iowa and of Kansas) and the west (California) and the south (Louisiana), the commercial and cultural implications of New York City neighborhood names (SoHo and so on), placenames in catch phrases and folklore, evocative placenames in poetry, house names here and abroad, Montreal placenames of a bilingual city, street names of the Vieux Carré of New Orleans (which has been Spanish and French as well as American), the mestizismo of Mexico as reflected in the names derived from three cultures (aboriginal, Spanish colonial, and modern Mexican), what's wrong with the Spanish placenames of California (as indicative of how placenaming can go wrong and how the US government handles names of US places), and the book concludes with a comparatively few pages of useful information that can greatly enhance the tourist's travels in exotic Turkey (with no more knowledge of the language than is given here).
There has never been any book which goes as deeply and entertainingly into so many aspects of placenaming and examines with copious examples and wit the unique power given to Adam and all his descendants to name the world in which they live, to claim it and order it and celebrate it.