Prim and proper Boston has always been known for its stiff character, rooted in its Puritan past. So how did this great New England city become home to one of the nation’s largest and most notorious adult entertainment districts in the country?
Veteran reporter Stephanie Schorow teases out the constitutional issues that gave rise to this controversial neighborhood and the colorful players who thought they could tame or profit from the sleaze snaking its way through downtown Boston. At turns comic and tragic, Schorow introduces us to the people who lived and worked in the Zone: the political architects and the neighborhood’s residents—the stripper-turned-university dean, the mobsters, vice squad captains, and a nun-turned-attorney who spent years advocating for the First Amendment rights of adult bookstores. Like many lost neighborhoods of Boston, the Combat Zone still looms in the city’s collective memory. As you'll see in this expertly crafted and previously untold tale, there is good reason.
