Jane Jacobs introduces her classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) by describing Boston's North End as an ideal urban neighborhood. Explore today's North End to envision what Jane Jacobs observed 60 years ago and how it has evolved. We will move through the North End, stopping at various landmarks, past and present, for discussion about how the neighborhood has changed while retaining its long-time character. While our focus will be on the Italian migration to this area, you will also learn about other interesting and important aspects of the North End's Puritan, African, Colonial, Irish, and Jewish history. Your guides, Boston University professors Jim O'Connell and Jim Pasto, are urban scholars and historians. Jim Pasto grew up in the North End and has been writing about its history.
