Welcome
Welcome Sociology -- Current Urban Issues Boston students! For this course, you have two librarians for research help- Christine Oka (Sociology) and Roxanne Palmatier (Political Science).
Current Issues in Cities and Suburbs
Planning
- Imagine Boston 2030 is based on surveys of the many neighborhoods of Boston, report includes tables and maps
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Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) works with communities, to plan physical, social, and economic change in Boston’s neighborhoods for a more prosperous, resilient and vibrant city for all. The website also includes information about the neighborhoods of Boston
- BPDA -- Office to Residential Conversion Program [opens new window]
Selected BDPA publications:
- Meet Boston Neighborhoods, tour guide of the city, with information about the neighborhoods.
- Open Classroom - School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs is a series of presentations about current issues--some semester presentations focused on Boston and issues such as climate change, food security, community voices in urban decision-making.
Demographics and Data
- American Community Survey
- U.S. Census Quick Facts on Boston, MA and for more detailed information
My Census Viewer with maps providing a selection of data by neighborhood and Census tract:
- Analyze Boston is the City of Boston's Open Data Hub, with 247 datasets, including
Boston Neighborhood Data from 2020 Census
- Boston Area Research Initiative--BARI Boston Data Portal
Maps
- The History of Landfill in Boston -- an interactive map of Boston from 1630 to 1890.
- Boston Development & Planning. Neighborhood Maps
- Map of Boston and Historical Landmark Districts
- Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center includes a searchable collection of historical Boston maps
Online Research Information
- Uncovering Boston's History from Boston.gov
- iBoston: History and Architecture is a searchable resource with current events, interactive maps and other research tools.
Boston Public Library (BPL)
- Read ABOUT the BPL, the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room.
Offers free tours of the art and architecture of the library.Learn about the artistic connection between the BPL and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). - Art and Architecture Virtual Booklet
- Branch Libraries include: Chinatown, East Boston, North End, and West End.
The NU Library Archives and Special Collections has a number of digital collections sites or digital exhibits that provide additional context on our digitized materials.
- Boston’s Asian American History(Opens in new window)
- Records and exhibits featuring records from the Chinese Progressive Association, Sampan newspaper that document the history of Boston’s Chinatown and Asian American communities.
- Boston’s Latinx Community History(Opens in new window)
- Over 41,000 records documenting two Latinx organizations, La Alianza Hispana and Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, from 1965-2001 as well as additional context about each collection.
- Boston’s LGBTQIA+ History (Opens in new window)
- Over 1,000 records from ACT UP/Boston, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, the Bromfield Street Educational Center (including the Gay Community News) Fenway Community Health Center, Men of All Colors Together Boston, Boston Alliance of Gay and LEsbian Youth, Inc (BAGLY), and the Theater Offensive as well as additional context about each collection.
- Beyond Busing: Boston School Desegregation Collection(Opens in new window)
- Over 4,000 archival records from Boston-area archives that narrate the long history of school desegregation in Boston along with resources for educators and curated records from community organizations and collaborators.
- Freedom House Photographs(Opens in new window)
- More than 2,300 images of people, places and events documenting Roxbury Massachusetts, 1950-1975.
- Lower Roxbury Black History Project (Opens in new window)
- 40+ audio and video interviews of current and former residents of Lower Roxbury interviewed by Lolita Parker Jr, along with scanned photographs and records offered by the interviewees.
- Our Home: An East Boston History Portal(Opens in new window)
- Records from the East Boston Community News and community contributed records documenting the long history of the neighborhood accompanied by additional resources to become acquainted with East Boston History.
- The Boston Globe Library Collection(Opens in new window)
- Historic information and highlighted scans from the Boston Globe Library Collection accompanied by information about how to use this unique collection.
- The Boston Phoenix(Opens in new window)
- Captured websites, digital issues from Phoenix Media Group Collections.
- Digital Commonwealth through the Boston Public Library, are historical collections from libraries, museums, and archives across Massachusetts.
Check newspapers, news sources and digital collections for interviews. Database A-Z List is searchable: there are 30 resources in the list related to Boston and include
- Access World News Research Collection (Newsbank) This link opens in a new windowOur largest general news source, with current and complete newspapers, magazines, wire services from around the world. Backfiles sometimes go back to the 1980s. Text only. Includes Boston community newspapers such as Bay Windows, Boston Herald and South End News.
- Boston Globe (1872-present) (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowHistorical and current access to the Boston Globe, one of two major daily newspapers in Boston. Link to the most recent issue.
- Boston Herald (via Access World News) This link opens in a new windowFull text from 1991 to the present. The newspaper is one of two daily newspapers in Boston.
- Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) full text newspapers, magazines and journals of American ethnic, minority and indigenous communities. Offers additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press.
- Sampan is a bilingual Chinese and English newspaper in New England. Sections cover Boston and the Metro area.
Media Sources may include oral histories or presentations
- HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowThis resource is made available to the Northeastern University community with support from alumni donors.
These video oral history interviews highlight the accomplishments of individual African Americans and African-American-led groups and movements. A resource for students and scholars exploring African American history and culture. Over 2700 individuals are profiled. Transcripts available.
Videos from The Moth, TED Talks and other open sources have presentations about place and identity.
At The Moth, Ellie Lee talks about growing up in Boston Chinatown.
Selections from the library collection
City of Neighborhoods: memory, folklore, and ethnic place in Boston by
East Boston has long been known as an Italian neighborhood and Southie as an Irish one, while nearby North Quincy has seen in recent decades an influx of Chinese Americans and immigrants. Such urban spaces in America can become intimately intertwined with ethnic identities (Little Italy, Greektown, Chinatown, Little Havana). Yet local residents often readily acknowledge an underlying diversity--both historically and as a result of more recent changes--that complicates such stereotypes. Digging into the ever-shifting terrain of American ethnicity and urban spaces, Anthony Bak Buccitelli investigates folk practices, social memory, and local histories in three Boston-area neighborhoods. He looks at the ways locals represent their neighborhoods and themselves via events, symbols, stories, and landmarks, from the shamrock to the Chinese flag, whether the St. Patrick's Day parade in Southie or the Columbus Day parade in East Boston, from urban graffiti and websites to the Dorchester Heights Monument. City of Neighborhoods exposes the processes of selection and emphasis that produce, sustain, challenge, and change understandings of urban spaces as ethnic places. Honorable mention, Wayland Hand Prize for Folklore and History, American Folklore Society
ISBN: 9780299307103Publication Date: 2016
Good neighbors : gentrifying diversity in Boston's South End by
Does gentrification destroy diversity? Or does it thrive on it? Boston?s South End, a legendary working-class neighborhood with the largest Victorian brick row house district in the United States and a celebrated reputation for diversity, has become in recent years a flashpoint for the problems of gentrification. It has born witness to the kind of rapid transformation leading to pitched battles over the class and race politics throughout the country and indeed the contemporary world. This subtle study of a storied urban neighborhood reveals the way that upper-middle-class newcomers have positioned themselves as champions of diversity, and how their mobilization around this key concept has reordered class divisions rather than abolished them. From the Hardcover edition.
ISBN: 9781781689509Publication Date: 2015
A People's Guide to Greater Boston by
A People's Guide to Greater Boston reveals the region's richness and vibrancy in ways that are neglected by traditional area guidebooks and obscured by many tourist destinations. Affirming the hopes, interests, and struggles of individuals and groups on the receiving end of unjust forms of power, the book showcases the ground-level forces shaping the city. Uncovering stories and places central to people's lives over centuries, this guide takes readers to sites of oppression, resistance, organizing, and transformation in Boston and outlying neighborhoods and municipalities--from Lawrence, Lowell, and Lynn to Concord and Plymouth. It highlights tales of the places and people involved in movements to abolish slavery; to end war and militarism; to achieve Native sovereignty, racial equity, gender justice, and sexual liberation; and to secure workers' rights. In so doing, this one-of-a-kind guide points the way to a radically democratic Greater Boston, one that sparks social and environmental justice and inclusivity for all.
ISBN: 9780520967571Publication Date: 2020
Stories, streets, and saints : photographs and oral histories from Boston's North End by
"A time capsule of a classic Italian American neighborhood, told in the voices of its inhabitants"-- Provided by publisher.
ISBN: 9781438490090Publication Date: 2022
How do I get a book?
Check your Global Campus Library Portal for local library information.
At the Boston Campus --How to Request books from Remote Annex
Available at School of Law --book may be found at the School of Law Library,
AIA Guide to Boston by
This book is a superbly written history of Boston's built environment, filled with insider details and engaging anecdotes about more than 600 buildings, including such historic landmarks as Faneuil Hall, the mansions on Beacon Hill, the commercial wharves in Boston Harbor, Fenway Park, and the Freedom Trail as well as Boston's latest contemporary buildings such as the ICA, MIT's Stata Center, and the infamous "Big Dig." This guide has been completely rewritten and redesigned, with added theme tours, such as Boston Urban Design, Contemporary Landmarks, or the work of Charles Bulfinch. New, up-to- date locator maps have been created for this edition, and the glossary and index have been revised.
Call Number: Snell Stacks NA735.B7 S69 2008ISBN: 9780762743377Publication Date: 2008
The Atlas of Boston History by
Few American cities possess a history as long, rich, and fascinating as Boston's. A site of momentous national political events from the Revolutionary War through the civil rights movement, Boston has also been an influential literary and cultural capital. From ancient glaciers to landmaking schemes and modern infrastructure projects, the city's terrain has been transformed almost constantly over the centuries. The Atlas of Boston History traces the city's history and geography from the last ice age to the present with beautifully rendered maps. Edited by historian Nancy S. Seasholes, this landmark volume captures all aspects of Boston's past in a series of fifty-seven stunning full-color spreads. Each section features newly created thematic maps that focus on moments and topics in that history. These maps are accompanied by hundreds of historical and contemporary illustrations and explanatory text from historians and other expert contributors. They illuminate a wide range of topics including Boston's physical and economic development, changing demography, and social and cultural life. In lavishly produced detail, The Atlas of Boston History offers a vivid, refreshing perspective on the development of this iconic American city. Contributors Robert J. Allison, Robert Charles Anderson, John Avault, Joseph Bagley, Charles Bahne, Laurie Baise, J. L. Bell, Rebekah Bryer, Aubrey Butts, Benjamin L. Carp, Amy D. Finstein, Gerald Gamm, Richard Garver, Katherine Grandjean, Michelle Granshaw, James Green, Dean Grodzins, Karl Haglund, Ruth-Ann M. Harris, Arthur Krim, Stephanie Kruel, Kerima M. Lewis, Noam Maggor, Dane A. Morrison, James C. O'Connell, Mark Peterson, Marshall Pontrelli, Gayle Sawtelle, Nancy S. Seasholes, Reed Ueda, Lawrence J. Vale, Jim Vrabel, Sam Bass Warner, Jay Wickersham, and Susan Wilson
ISBN: 022663115XPublication Date: 2019
Dark Tide:: the great Boston molasses flood of 1919 by
Shortly after noon on January 15, 1919, a fifty-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a fifteen-foot-high wave of molasses that briefly traveled at thirty-five miles per hour. When the tide receded, a section of the city's North End had been transformed into a war zone. The Great Boston Molasses Flood claimed the lives of twenty-one people and scores of animals, injured 150, and caused widespread destruction. But the molasses flood was more than an isolated event. Its story overlays America's story during a tumultuous decade in our history. Tracing the era from the tank's construction in 1915 through the multiyear lawsuit that followed the tragedy,Dark Tideuses the drama of the flood to examine the sweeping changes brought about by World War I, Prohibition, the Anarchist movement, the Red Scare, immigration, and the role of big business in society.
Call Number: Request from Remote AnnexISBN: 0807050202Publication Date: 2003
Streets of Echoes. Vol. V, Back Bay--Fenway, Beacon HIll--West End, Dorchester : Stories from Boston's Most Enduring Neighborhoods. by
This anthology features surprising and thoughtful essays written by thirty-five senior adults living in four of Boston's vibrant and enduring neighborhoods: Allston-Brighton, the South End, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.
ISBN: 9780615896847Publication Date: 2013
Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land by ISBN: 0262693399Publication Date: 2006Getting a sense of Boston past and present with walking tours. NOTE: Walk #5 is around Northeastern University.
