Inside the Combat Zone: The Stripped Down Story of Boston's Most Notorious Neighborhood, Paperback

Boston has always been known for its stiff character. So how did this great New England city become home to one of the largest and most notorious adult entertainment districts in the nation? In this expertly crafted history, veteran reporter Stephanie Schorow teases out the issues that created this controversial neighborhood, giving voice to the players who sought to tame or profit from the sleaze snaking its way through Boston. At turns comic and tragic, Schorow introduces us to the politicians, exotic dancers, and wise guys, and residents brought together by the adult entertainment district-a five-acre neighborhood the city engineered to contain the very porno plague it wanted to eliminate. (Meet the nun-turned-attorney who advocated for the First Amendment rights of adult bookstores, a dancer called "the thinking man's stripper," and Boston's unofficial city censor.) For these people and thousands of others, the Combat Zone is more than a memory-it was a life-altering adventure.

Stephanie Schorow is the author of seven books on Boston history, including Drinking Boston: A History of the City and Its Spirits, The Cocoanut Grove Fire, Boston on Fire, East of Boston: Notes from the Harbor Islands, and The Crime of the Century: How the Brink's Robbers Stole Millions and the Hearts of Boston. She co-wrote The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums & Hideouts with Beverly Ford. She has worked as an editor and reporter for the Boston Herald, the Associated Press, and numerous other publications.