BostonPL_19 Books about Boston's Community HistoryLike this list

19 items

• Forever Struggle

  Activism, Identity, & Survival in Boston's Chinatown, 1880-2018

  Liu, Michael, 1948-

  Add Forever Struggle to your for later shelf

  Chinatown has much to teach us about neighborhood agency, the power of organizing, and the prospects of such neighborhoods in rapidly growing and changing cities.

• People Before Highways

  Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making

  Crockett, Karilyn,

  Add People Before Highways to your for later shelf

  The story of how an unlikely multiracial coalition of urban and suburban residents, planners, and activists emerged to stop an interstate highway is one full of suspenseful twists and surprises, including for the actors themselves.

• Good Neighbors

  Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End

  Tissot, Sylvie

  Add Good Neighbors to your for later shelf

  Through an historical and ethnographical account of the changing face of one former working class neighborhood in Boston, Good Neighbors provides fascinating insights into how the urban elites have reshaped the neighborhood they now inhabit.

• Chain of Change

  Struggles for Black Community Development

  King, Mel

  Add Chain of Change to your for later shelf

  One-time mayoral candidate, founder of the Rainbow Coalition, and longtime political activist, Mel King surveys Black life in Boston, including the forces of racism and liberation, and shows how the Black community has worked to establish its…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Constructing Community

  Urban Governance, Development, and Inequality in Boston

  Levine, Jeremy

  Add Constructing Community to your for later shelf

  Constructing Community offers a rich ethnographic portrait of the individuals who implement community development projects in the Fairmount Corridor, one of Boston's poorest areas. He shows how community development is as much about constructing the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Last House Standing

  How Once We Were : Photographs of the Past

  Manheim, Michael Philip, 1940-

  Add Last House Standing to your for later shelf

  The author was commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1973 to take photographs of environmental issues in the U.S. The finished product is a book on the Logan Airport expansion and the impact on East Boston.

• My Legacy Is Simply This

  Stories From Boston's Most Enduring Neighborhoods : Charlestown, Chinatown, East Boston, and Mattapan

  Add My Legacy Is Simply This to your for later shelf

  An anthology of personal stories written by more than 50 older adults in Boston. These stories were written and edited with the help of GrubStreet instructors over the course of a year. Each story is unique to the author's experiences and memories…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Boston's South End

  the Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood

  Lopez, Russ,

  Add Boston's South End to your for later shelf

  Boston's South End, built on mostly man-made land, had become the city's premier neighborhood by the 1850s. Over the next century, the South End became a thriving melting pot of ethnicities, races, and religions.

• Faces of Dudley

  Add Faces of Dudley to your for later shelf

  In one brief autumn day over three hundred people came together to create "Faces of Dudley," a temporary installation of oversized photographic portraits pasted to the exterior of the Dudley Branch of the Boston Public Library.

• Holding Ground

  The Rebirth of Dudley Street

  Add Holding Ground to your for later shelf

  Holding Ground is at once a cautionary tale of urban policies gone wrong and a message of hope for all American cities. In 1985, African-American, Latino, Cape Verdean, and European-American residents in Roxbury, MA united to revitalize their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Gaining Ground

  Building Community on Dudley Street

  Add Gaining Ground to your for later shelf

  Gaining Ground explores the innovative, grassroots organizing efforts of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) in Boston. Over the course of two years, we watch a new generation of leaders working to prevent foreclosures and bring jobs…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A People's History of the New Boston

  Vrabel, Jim,

  Add A People's History of the New Boston to your for later shelf

  This book provides a grassroots perspective on the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, when residents of the city's neighborhoods engaged in an era of activism and protest unprecedented in Boston since the American Revolution.

• Building a New Boston

  Politics and Urban Renewal, 1950-1970

  O'Connor, Thomas H., 1922-2012

  Add Building a New Boston to your for later shelf

  A Boston political history that focuses on the "revitalization" of the city from 1950-1970. The addition of new buildings and businesses brought in a new era at a steep cost. Neighborhoods were destroyed amd families displaced. This is a critical…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Boston Jazz Chronicles

  Faces, Places, and Nightlife, 1937-1962

  Vacca, Richard

  Add The Boston Jazz Chronicles to your for later shelf

  Boston jazz came into its own during the World War II years, when the big bands supplied America with its popular music, and Boston's Charlie and Cy Shribman were among the kingmakers of the big-band era.

• Buy Me, Boston

  Local Ads and Flyers, 1960s-1980s. Volume 2

  Add Buy Me, Boston to your for later shelf

  Take a trip to the Boston of yesteryear, guided by advertisements for the businesses and characters that made the city tick in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s - restaurants, hair salons, bands, bars, clothing boutiques and more.

• Boston's Labor Movement

  An Oral History of Work and Union Organizing

  Roboff, Sari

  Add Boston's Labor Movement to your for later shelf

  Explore the role of labor unions in Boston's history; chapters include the Yankee commercial city 1700-1845, the early Irish years 1845-1880, rise of the Irish and the unions 1880-1929, the Depression and the War 1929-1945 and the post-war era…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Religious Festive Practices in Boston's North End

  Ephemeral Identities in An Italian American Community

  Ferraiuolo, Augusto

  Add Religious Festive Practices in Boston's North End to your for later shelf

  Ferraiuolo examines the many religious festivals in the Italian American community of Boston's North End. Using interviews, participant observation, and visual data, Ferraiuolo creates a vivid picture of the summer season festivals.

• An Army of Ex-lovers

  My Life at the Gay Community News

  Hoffman, Amy

  Add An Army of Ex-lovers to your for later shelf

  Boston's weekly Gay Community News was "the center of the universe" during the late 1970s, writes Amy Hoffman in this memoir of gay liberation before AIDS, before gay weddings, and before The L Word. With a small circulation but a huge influence,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Home, Talk, Taste and Other Stories From Boston

  An Anthology of Writing in Partnership With GrubStreet and the Boston Public Library

  Add Home, Talk, Taste and Other Stories From Boston to your for later shelf

  Over the course of a year, GrubStreet writing instructors held classes at the Roxbury, East Boston, and South End branches of the BPL. At the end, the personal stories written by patrons were collected into a beautiful anthology of funny,…Read moreRead more of this annotation