BU Summer Course Offering – A Social History of Boston’s North End

A Social History of Boston’s North End

Special Topics

MET SO 501

This course surveys changes in the North End from the colonial period to the present within the wider context of regional and international developments.  Topics include the early African presence in the North End, Cotton Mather and witchcraft, Hannah Mather Crocker and early American feminism, the North End as revolutionary crucible, immigration conflicts and competition, the importance of Italian religious societies and festivals as an expression of anticlerical Catholicism, kinship and regional factors in residential distribution, W.F. Whyte’s Street Corner Society, myths and realities of the organized crime, and more. We also examine the re-creation of the North End as an Italian style neighborhood through studies of tourism, the marketing of ethnic cuisine and lifestyle, and research on ethnic theme parks. We utilize historical documents and studies of the colonial period, sociological analyses of immigration and urban communities, and current research on gentrification, development, and tourism.

Summer 1 (May 22-June 28) – Tuesdays and Thursday 6-9:30

For more information: Contact Boston University Summer Term – 617-353-5124 or http://www.bu.edu/summer/