Description
Book SynopsisDiving into Harvard Square’s past and present, Catherine J. Turco, an economic sociologist and longtime Harvard Square denizen, tells the crazy, complicated love story of one quirky little marketplace and in the process, reveals the hidden love story Americans everywhere have long had with their own Main Streets and downtowns.
Trade ReviewTurco brings a novelist’s subtle sense of character, place, and pacing to an incisive, truly new consideration of a universal, though often invisible, fact of life: how we relate to where we live. And, on a deeper level, how we relate to change. A twenty-first-century Jane Jacobs, Turco’s intellect, compassion, and commitment come through each page. -- Lea Carpenter, author of
Eleven Days and
Red, White, Blue: A NovelA lovely, well-told story that will change how you think about markets, marketplaces, and perhaps even your own shopping. -- Joseph L. Badaracco, author of
Step Back: How to Bring the Art of Reflection into Your Busy LifeTurco's history will forever change my daily commute of walking through Harvard Square. She provides amazing insight into the changes that have happened and will continue to happen, and clarifies that those who observe that the Square is changing are repeating an observation that has existed for centuries. -- Max H. Bazerman, Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Harvard Square is an emotionally gripping historical ethnography, powerfully connected to both the archive and to the lived experience of our attachments to a real street-level market and the people within it. -- Peter Bearman, coauthor of
Working for Respect: Community and Conflict at WalmartThis book is an intellectual and emotional revelation about why street-level marketplaces—the places where people dine and shop, meet others, and feel part of the scene—mean so much to them and why this 'love story' is inherently fraught. It is original and insightful about both markets and people. -- Cecilia L. Ridgeway, author of
Status: Why Is It Everywhere? Why Does It Matter?Turco uses the example of Harvard Square, a neighborhood she knows well and loves dearly, to examine the role of marketplaces in our lives. She shows how we develop affective ties to these dynamic markets, and then deplore the changes that market forces bring about. This book raises important questions about the tensions between markets and communities, and the extent to which we both crave and resist change. -- Mary Waters, Harvard University
You will simply fall in love with how Turco draws you in and how she guides you to appreciate the paradox that markets are both source for, and threat to, what is sacred and intimate in our lives. -- Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan, MIT Sloan
I think everyone should read this absorbing, deeply reported love story. * Cambridge Day *
We are upset when market forces threaten the things we think are sacred. Turco hammers the point home: “That which gives us a sense of ontological security also takes it away. Who wouldn’t get upset by that?” * Arts Fuse *
This is what Turco calls a 'crazy love' for the local marketplace — a feeling so strong it can stir a socialist. And her project is to understand its power. * Boston Globe *
Turco takes a deep dive into what it is that makes a Main Street or community center special to its denizens. Her historically informed account will certainly resonate with those with fond memories of the Square’s past iterations. * Harvard Magazine *
Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note
IntroductionPrologue: Sacred Sundays
1. A Love Story Told from the Street Level
Part 1: A Lot of the Same, A Lot of Change2. Not What It Used to Be
3. The Times They Are (Always) A-Changin’
4. A Tricky Relationship
Part 2: Crazy Love5. Crazy Love
6. Everybody Get Together
7. Forever Young
8. Outside Agitators
9. Whose Square? The Battle for Control
10. Pulling Away
11. Different Markets, Different Perspectives
Conclusion12. Our Markets, Ourselves
13. Reclaiming the Street Level: COVID-19 and Beyond
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
