Dirty Old Boston

Book excerpt: When Jim Botticelli launched the Dirty Old Boston Facebook page as a salute to the gritty city of his past, he unwittingly galvanized thousands of people who were also nostalgic for and curious about this crucial time in the city's development. Now captured in a rich and compelling collection, Dirty Old Boston chronicles the people, streets, and buildings from the postwar years to 1987, when a new wave of transformation began. Along with the ball games and dive bars, the four decades covered in this book document some of the city's most dramatic changes and tumultuous events--wholesale razing of neighborhoods, Boston's busing crisis, and the continual fight for affordable housing.Photographs are drawn from family albums, student photography projects, institutional archives, and professional collections, revealing a view of Boston shot from the street. What emerges is a narrative of a city tearing down and rebuilding, protesting and celebrating, fading and thriving. Illuminating Boston's singular tenacity and spirit, Dirty Old Boston presents her proud moments and doesn't shy away from her growing pains. Dirty Old Boston recalls the city as it used to be, the challenges it faced, the maddening traffic and outlandish politics, the simple pleasures of block parties and parades, and those neighborhood haunts where people found camaraderie amidst it all. Raw and beautiful, this book is a tribute to a city and its people.