Social Science

On November 28, 1942, fire roared through Boston’s famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub during what was supposed to be a high-spirited Saturday night. By midnight, more than five hundred people were dead, dying, or maimed for life.

Local author Stephanie Schorow probes the club’s history, the circumstances leading to the fire, and the tragedy’s lingering impact. The inferno reached deep into the city’s social structure––its politics, medical care, law enforcement, and religious life––and touched nearly everyone in the Boston area, even those who had never set foot in the club. In this newly updated and revised edition, Schorow has added new information, photographs, interviews and insights on the worst nightclub fire in American history.

Boston journalists Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow navigate the backrooms and seedy hangouts throughout the real story of Boston's gangster past.

The capture of notorious mobster James Whitey Bulger closed an infamous chapter in Boston history, yet the city's criminal underworld has a long and bloody rap sheet that stretches back to the beginning of the twentieth century. Ford and Schorow reveal the underbelly of Boston through profiles of ruthless gangsters like Charles King Solomon, the Angiulo brothers, Joseph The Animal Barboza, Stephen The Rifleman Flemmi and many more who carried out deadly hits and lucrative heists.

Chronicling the devastating Strand Theatre Fire of 1941 and celebrating the community's heroes and resilience in the face of adversity.

On March 10, 1941, at 12:38 a.m., the Brockton Fire Department responded to Fire Alarm Box 1311, which was pulled for a fire at the Strand Theatre. Fire Alarm dispatched the deputy chief, three engine companies, a ladder company and Squad A. Within six minutes, a second alarm was struck. Less than one hour after the first alarm, the roof of the Strand collapsed, and what appeared to be a routine fire turned into a disaster that killed 13 firefighters and injured more than 20 others. The disaster marks one of the largest losses of life to firefighters from a burning building collapse in the United States.

The fading memories of Greater Boston's Blizzard of 1978 return to life for those who experienced it and those who can only imagine.

The great blizzard of 1978 is an event seared in the memory of anyone who lived through it. Most of Greater Boston was quickly overwhelmed by the storm, which shut down all forms of transit, stranded thousands of cars and motorists along Route 128, and virtually shut down most of the state for a week. But for many coastal communities, the impact of the storm, which brought record high tides and pounding surf, was pure devastation. The common thread shared by almost everyone in the region was positive memories of neighbors and strangers helping each other and finding new bonds of community.

Greater Boston's Blizzard of 1978is illustrated with approximately 200 photographs from government archives and private collections and is told by author Alan R. Earls, who somehow managed to drive through the worst of the infamous storm.

Follow the tragic story of a fishing trip gone wrong and its impact on the community of Brockton, Massachusetts.

On May 13, 1928, ten prominent men of Brockton, Massachusetts, headed off on a fishing trip to Moosehead Lake in Maine. After traveling fourteen hours, the group met Maine guide Samuel Budden and boarded the Mac II for the final voyage to their destination. Approximately six miles from the Tomhegan sporting camp, the boat took on water in rough seas and sank, taking Budden and all but one of the adventurers to a watery grave. Jim Benson and Nicole Casper chronicle this horrific tragedy and its legacy in two New England communities.

Boston is home to one of the oldest Chinatowns in the US, when Chinese merchants, workers and stdents populated the area. Explore their history there and their part in creating a strong community and unique culture in the area.

Chinese Americans in Boston trace their historical origins to pioneering settlements of merchants, workers, and students in different parts of New England. After the 1880s, hundreds of Chinese arrived in Boston. Beginning as a bachelor male-dominated society, the Chinese in Boston gradually developed stronger bonds of family and community life. Spared natural disasters that characterized the Chinese immigrant experience in the West, Boston's Chinatown nonetheless faced challenges of urban renewal and environmental degradation. Through their participation in community organizations, merchant activities, educational opportunities, and civic protests, the Chinese in Boston persevered, simultaneously maintaining their Chinese identity and acculturating into America. They formed a close-knit community that distinguished Boston's Chinatown as one of the oldest and most enduring Chinese neighborhoods on the East Coast.

Massachusetts's historic graveyards are the final resting places for tales of the strange and supernatural.

From Newburyport to Truro, these graveyards often frighten the living, but the dead who rest within them have stories to share with the world they left behind. While Giles Corey is said to haunt the Howard Street Cemetery in Salem, cursing those involved in the infamous witch trials, visitors to the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain enjoy an arboretum and a burial ground with Victorian-era memorials. One of the oldest cemeteries in Massachusetts, Old Burial Hill in Marblehead, has been the final resting place for residents for nearly 375 years.

Author Roxie Zwicker tours the Bay State's oldest burial grounds, exploring the stones, stories and supernatural lore of these hallowed places.

Swedes of Greater Worcester captures the area's Swedish heritage through a collection of images that displays everything from vintage weddings to ski-jumping events and stories known only by the families of the Swedes who first traveled to Worcester. These images represent a time when the Swedish element was a vital and vibrant part of the identity of the greater Worcester area.

Cape Cod, one of the nation's oldest regions, can claim many firsts, but not as many as some want you to believe.

Boastfulness, tall tales and plain stretching the truth about history is widely practiced in this tourist mecca. Even esteemed institutions such as churches and historical societies are nimble in the art of gilding the lily. Discover where The Wizard of Oz /film really premiered, whether Mercy Otis Warren had a hand in writing the Bill of Rights and who invented the hole in the doughnut. Along the way, you’ll find out where the country's oldest Congregational meetinghouse is located, and whether Mad Jack was a thieving scoundrel.

Local author and historian James Ellis separates fact from fiction. 

Cape Cod has a rich tradition of local lore, stretching back to a time before the Pilgrims arrived.

Ancient Wampanoag legends like Granny Squannit and Princess Scargo are as familiar as tales of pirates and explorers, including Black Sam Bellamy and Donald Baxter Macmillan. Felines often blocked Cat's Alley in pursuit of food from fishermen's boats. The remnants of Billingsgate Island can be seen at low tide, and visits from Jenny Lind and Helen Keller contrast with the mysterious stories of the Lady of the Dunes and New England's Dark Day. Author Robin Smith-Johnson shares historic tales of shipwrecks, murders, hauntings and more from the Cape.

The North End - Boston's Little Italy - is an enclave with a rich history and a culture rooted in family, food and faith.

Once home to hardworking immigrant families from Italy, it was also the neighborhood of Sacco and Vanzetti, Charles Ponzi and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Organizations like the North End Industrial Home and the North Benet Street School helped to educate and serve the community. With St. Leonard’s of Port Maurice Church at its heart, la via vecchia (the old way) is woven through its narrow, winding streets, brick buildings, restaurants and pastry shops. Today, neighbors and tourists alike meet for coffee and cannolis, unaware of the neighborhood's complex history.

Local author and resident Patricia Annino reveals the resilient journey from one of America’s poorest slums to a place of opportunity.

Quirky and little-known true stories of one of America’s most historic cities.

Boston may play a big role in American history textbooks, but it also has quite a bit of forgotten past. For example, during the colonial era, riotous mobs celebrated their hatred of the pope in an annual celebration called Pope’s Night. In 1659, Christmas was made illegal, a ban by the Puritans that remained in effect for twenty-two years. William Monroe Trotter published the Boston Guardian, an independent African American newspaper, and was a beacon of civil rights activism at the turn of the century. And in more recent times, a centuries-long turf war played out on the streets of quiet Chinatown, ending in the massacre of five men in a back alley in 1991.

Author and historian Dina Vargo shines a light into the cobwebbed corners of Boston’s hidden history in this riveting read, complete with illustrations.

The author of Legends & Lore of Cape Cod delves deeper into the colorful local history of Massachusetts’s quaint seaside region.

Cape Cod may be a popular tourist destination, but it has a strange and distinctive history. The Pukwudgies were two- to three-foot beings with smooth gray skin, hairy faces and horns. These shape-shifting, mischievous “little people” are connected to Wampanoag Indian mythology.

Edward Rowe Snow, a New England historian who was also known as “the Flying Santa,” delivered Christmas presents to lighthouse keepers and their families. Jeremiah’s Gutter was a canal in Orleans and the first Cape Cod Canal.

Join author Robin Smith-Johnson as she uncovers the secrets behind many unique places, remarkable events and fascinating people.

The Roaring Twenties were filled with a range of events, experiences, fears, laws and advances that impacted Martha’s Vineyard.

Island residents were involved in rumrunning. Dozens died of the Spanish Flu. Women voted on Island.  Dorothy West joined the Harlem Renaissance.  Immigration from the Azores slowed, and airplanes landed in Katama. Tourism blossomed and business boomed.

Local author Thomas Dresser shares the back story and the import of this remarkable decade and how it has shaped Vineyarders.

Find stories of magic and witches, sailors, pirates and shipwrecks and more in this book filled with folks with great stories and interesting lives.

Author and Marblehead Museum & Historical Society director Pam Peterson recounts the oral and written accounts that Marbleheaders have handed down over the past 400 years. Compiled with meticulous care, Marblehead Myths, Legends and Lore offers a diverse sampling of tales from one of New England's maritime treasures.

It's an incredible and humbling experience to begin a life in a foreign country with many hardships, but Worcester, Massachusetts, was a mecca for many Armenian immigrants.

At the beginning of the 20th century, millions of immigrants came to the United States in search of a better life and greater opportunities for their families. However, the Armenians who emigrated from their home land between 1894 and 1930 were escaping a devastating genocide that tore their country apart. With little to their name, these new citizens embraced their new home, and for Worcester, they became an integral part of the culture and history of the town. There were mills that provided work, and both the first Armenian Apostolic church and the first Armenian Protestant church in America were built in this city, and both helped to build the foundations for a community that was to enrich the city and slowly resurrect arts and food that celebrates Armenian culture. The Armenian picnics that were an integrating influence in the early years continue even today as a gathering of clans and as a memorial for those lost.

Venture back to 1715, when a fifteen-year-old Cape Cod girl named Maria Hallett was seduced by a twenty-six-year-old Englishman named Samuel Bellamy.

Bellamy soon left her to become one of the most infamous pirates of his day—Black Sam Bellamy. Maria remained on the Cape but was forced to live in solitude after giving birth to Bellamy's child. Two years later, Bellamy returned to his love, and Maria watched from the dunes as his flagship, the Whydah, sank in the worst nor'easter in the history of the Cape. The legend of Maria Hallett has been passed down for over two hundred years, and Cape Cod writer Kathleen Brunelle brings a fresh breath of sea air to this epic tale in her search for Bellamy's bride.

With an excellent collection of more than two hundred vintage images, The Swedes of Greater Brockton tells the unique story of the immigration to this area of Massachusetts. Greater Brockton was the shoe-manufacturing center of the United States, with such factories as W.L. Douglas, George E. Keith, and D.W. Field. These magnets of immigration drew thousands to the region. Within these pages, meet hundreds of these Swedish immigrants and their descendants. Join in their journey to America, visit their homes, churches, and places of business, and experience their leisure activities. Learn about the establishment of the Swedish churches-Lutheran, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and the Salvation Army-and see how the entrepreneurial spark in America caught fire in Brockton's Swedish community.