In this book, the author takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community.

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...

When the FBI turned an Irish mobster into an informant, they corrupted the entire judicial system and sanctioned the worst crime spree Boston has ever seen. This is the true story behind the major motion picture.
James "Whitey" Bulger became one of the most ruthless gangsters in US history, and all because of an unholy deal he made with a childhood friend. John Connolly a rising star in the Boston FBI office, offered Bulger protection in...

Kane explores the role of religious identity in Boston in the years 1900-1920, arguing that Catholicism was a central integrating force among different class and ethnic groups. She traces the effect of changing class status on religious identity and solidarity, and she delineates the social and cultural meaning of Catholicism in a city where Yankee Protestant nativism persisted even as its hegemony was in decline.

"In 2013, "Bac Guai" John Willis, aka White Devil, was sentenced for drug trafficking and money laundering... was "leader of a vast conspiracy." Journalist Bob Halloran tells the tale of the only white man to rise through the ranks in the Chinese mafia. Willis began as an enforcer. ... Abandoned, alone, ... his mother dying [at] 16 years old, he was picked up by a man he once rescued from a fight. Soon he [met] ... Chinese [and other Asian] mobster...

They did the dirty work of the American Revolution Their spontaneous uprisings and violent actions steered America toward resistance to the Acts of Parliament and finally toward revolution. They tarred and feathered the backsides of British customs officials, gutted the mansion of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, armed themselves with marline spikes and cudgels to fight on the waterfront against soldiers of the British occupation, and hurled...

"Women of Southie tells the story of six women who grew up in and, in most cases, still live in their beloved town of South Boston, a place sadly most often recognized as the home of organized crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger. While Whitey might have been ruling the town with an iron fist, what the town ought to have been recognized for are the far braver women who ruled their own lives and their families with greater strength and conviction as they...

The book is a history of Boston's emergence as a world-class city. Once upon a time, Boston Town was an insulated New England township. But the community was destined for greatness. Between 1850 and 1900, Boston underwent a stunning metamorphosis to emerge as one of the world's great metropolises, one that achieved national and international prominence in politics, medicine, education, science, social activism, literature, commerce, and transportation....