Customer Reviews

What They Never Told You About Boston (Or What They Did That Were Lies)

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What They Never Told You About Boston... is a fantastic book filled with all kinds of tidbits about Boston's history. Names of streets are explained, significance of buildings, even words and phrases that had their origins in Boston! Misunderstandings are cleared up; for example the first white settler in Boston was not a Puritan but rather the Reverend William Blaxton, an Anglican minister, and Shawmut is not the name of an Indian tribe but more or less means 'the place to find boats.'

This is an enlightening read for those interested in Boston and her history, well-written and for the most part, extremely well-researched. (There are so many people and institutions who claim the first computer that I doubt MIT or Harvard can truly state that that honor is theirs.) I only wish that it was longer -- I zipped through the 101 pages pretty quickly! I enjoyed the book so much that I brought it to Germany with me, and use it in my teaching about English and America!

It is perfect and very entertainig book about Boston, written by a cab driver, very intelligently and informed. It has a long list of referenced books indicating the amount of effort and study put into it.It is very interesting, like the reader from Germany, I also started and I could not put the book aside until I finished it. It makes your mind twist when you start to know about things that you see everday or you walk by it. I never knew what the word "smoot" on Harvard Bridge was about although I step on it every day. From the old Sahwmut Bank logo I always thought that Shawmut was an Indian tribe. I thought blackstone river or vally was called blackstone may be because the stones were black and many other similiar associations. What about Quaker Lane in downtown. Well I am not going to tell you what is in the book, you need to read it but it is full of suprizes, at least for me it was. Now like they say when you meet someone after you had a telephone conversation, "I can put a face to it". Since I read the book it is "Frogg Lane" for me not Bolyston Street. It is just great, I conragulate Mr. Kelley. very nice book especially for people who are new to Boston and needs to catch up with its history to own the heritage. I read other books like Architectutral histories, topograpies etc. this one is juicy.

Don't expect deep philosophy or great revelations, but if you're a Bostonian you owe it to yourself to read this book. Many amusing stories and triva about Boston. Walt Kelly (no, not the Pogo dude) is a good storyteller, and has obviously done a lot of research.

I was born in Boston, so this was amusing to read; however, a lot of the items he presents as "fact" are incorrect. The book is actually riddled with errors, so I would not suggest anyone use this as a reference tool.