13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the way it was, August 31, 2009
This review is from: Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 (Hardcover)
Your Baedeker, as in those wonderful guidebooks to Europe, for Harvard Square has arrived. It is coffee table size so there the analogy ends. But as a unique resource to this fascinating place, it has no equal. Mo Lotman loves Harvard Square. In fact, of the estimated two million visitors yearly, many must form the same attachment he did.
You will find this to be a highly graphic and well organized work notwithstanding the very informative text and captions. It is arranged by time and by streets. It is populated by photos of the people who have passed through it for nearly six decades. Retail stores have come and gone. Events, sometimes violent such as the 1970 riots of Vietnam War protesters, have flared and burnt out.
Do you remember the movie, The Time Machine, where the past flashed by as the time traveller went way, way back? If this book were a film, that's what it would do: illuminate a past in which many people have lit a torch. But it isn't much about celebrities, although some Hasty Pudding parades are featured. No, it's about you and me. About the acts, buskers, booksellers, con-men, design research, folk, fops, girls, guys, hotels, jazz, kitsch, menus, musicians, performers, preachers, queens, students, x-rated, youth and more.
Many talented professionals, as well as myriad amateur photographers, contributed to the core attraction: the photographs. If you were here years ago, this will bring back memories. If you have never been here, when you visit you will know far more than the average tourist. Incidentally, Harvard University is not the focus, but rather incidental to the story. This is best since Harvard is a multiverse virtually incapable of being confined in a print publication. But Harvard graduates and their families will treasure the reading experience this provides.
Each of us on reading it will find so much he knew and so much more he might have known but missed. It is a valuable resource for travel professionals, libraries, historians, but most of all for you and me. We were there.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Satisfactory Look Into the Past, October 14, 2009
This review is from: Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 (Hardcover)
This is a great trip for those who remember or worked in Harvard Square any time during the last 50 years. It's full of great photos and the text--including historical background and personal reflections--is very well-written. The book is arranged chronologically and it's fascinating (and often depressing) to see the how much the Square changed over the years.
I worked in Harvard Square for several years in the Coop record department. It was a kind of cultural crossroads in those days, and many people remember it. Mr Lotman's book could have given more attention to that department, but I can't fault him too much for that since he includes so much other great material. My only real complaint is with the tiny mini-maps found on most pages. Even with a magnifying glass, they are much too hard to see. A larger, pull-out map of the Square would have been a better idea. Apart from that, this is a terrific book and I wondered why it hadn't been done long before.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Memories revisited, January 21, 2010
This review is from: Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 (Hardcover)
Hi:
Excellent book. Brought back many memories of my working and socializing in Harvard Square from the 60's on. It was about time something like this was published. Great pictures!!!!
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