These three annotated reading guides were developed for courses offered at the Boston Public Library under the National Endowment for the Humanities Learning Library Program. The permutations in style and content of black Boston literature are exemplified in this collection of 18 writings to serve as an index to the cultural and social life of the Boston community, both black and white. The 16 selections in the second set are illustrative of the cultural triumphs of nineteenth century Boston and also of its failure to sustain a healthy, unified culture under the pressure of social change in the latter part of the century. The third listing of 63 readings shows the impact of the immigrants on Boston's existing institutions, values, and patterns of living, the mediation of tension normative to a multiethnic society, and the expansion of the definition of Bostonian. (RAA)