Customer Reviews

Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950

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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.

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.

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!!!!

Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950 offers an oversized, visual journey through one of this country's must influential public places, offering a decade-by-decade account of the events and people of Harvard Square. It will earn its place in any library strong in regional American or Massachusetts history, featuring fine photos and interviews with over a hundred of the people who influenced the square's history and development.

I would stop at Harvard Coop and look through this book but could never see spending the money. I finally used the bonus money from my Amazon credit card to purchase it from Amazon. It doesn't cover EVERY store or business that you might remember but oh so many! So many stores and restaurants that have come and gone. This would really be a great gift for some 60 year old who was a student in Boston/Cambridge or one, like me, who grew up in that area and would take trips into the Square for the shopping or the museums. Oh, to have a Bailey's sundae again or look for fun things at Truc or have an apple beer at the Wursthaus or or ... it's all here. A wonderful book, full of photos and memories. You'll be saying "I remember THAT!" as you turn the pages.

If you've ever spent any time in Harvard Square, the heart of Cambridge, this is a treasure of a book. It is well organized, with interesting commentary on what was happening when, as well as terrific photos of Harvard Square as it changed over the years. This book has provided many hours of nostalgic wandering down memory lane.

If you'd like to wander down memory lane looking at photographs of businesses, mostly shops and restaurants, that the author enjoyed, this is the book for you. There's some mention and pictures of various new commercial buildings going up. But the book repeatedly covers the same places, like the Hong Kong Restaurant, while never mentioning Underdog, Goods, or Ta Tien. I appreciated learning that an eccentric widow owned most of the commercial buildings and rented them out very cheaply so that all those charming and marginal businesses could flourish. After she died the rents went up, those businesses died or moved away from the square, and national chains came in.

There is material about the folk movement (based around the venues), the 60s riots (banks and stores were damaged), the building of the new T station and extension, and a couple of the buskers. I was expecting something else, a real history of the square, with architecture, facts, etc. based on the title. Endless slightly different photos of the same streetscapes a few years apart got a bit old, I could tell that the author put a LOT of work into finding photos, researching when certain stores opened, closed, and finding information about their owners, but there's just too much missing. If you're looking for a more general history of the Square you may also be a little disappointed.