About the Author

Suzanne P. Blier Ph.D. is a tenured professor at Harvard (in the Art History and African, African American Studies Departments) and has written many award-winning books in her field both trade publications and more specialized works. Most recently, she published Picasso's Demoiselles: The Untold Origins of a Modern Masterpiece, winner of the 2020 Robert Motherwell Award and is now completing a new academic work, 1325: How Medieval Africa Made the World Modern (Yale).

Reviews

"Colorful Streets of Newtowne provides history for the young with voices that other texts leave out. With Blier's critical outlook on history, lovely illustrations, and key thinking questions sprinkled in." --Cambridge Day.

"Harvard Square occupies a site originally intended to be the capital of Massachusetts Bay Colony that has been the location of Harvard College since 1636. Harvard professor and community leader Suzanne Preston Blier has written a vivid and refreshingly original book that brings to life the complex history of this unique community." --Charles Sullivan, Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission and co-author of Building Old Cambridge.

"In The Streets of Newtowne, Blier wonderfully retells the story of North America's first planned city, Cambridge, MA. The book highlights the contributions to the city's rich history made by its Indigenous, African, and more recent immigrant communities, as well as the enormous contributions made by its female residents. A model retelling of American history by focusing on the fascinating evolution of one of America's most vibrant, historically significant, and rightly celebrated cities." --Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University Professor and host of the PBS Series Finding Your Roots.

"Travel the dirt pathways, the rough cobblestones, and the smooth paved streets of Cambridge in this fascinating trip through time, an amazingly comprehensive little volume, richly illustrated and warmly written about one of America's coolest, smartest, and most interesting towns. It is written for young readers, but no matter how old you are, you'll be surprised on every page." --William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Cape Cod and Harvard Yard.