Pennsylvania Books

Maria Malibran by Howard Bushnell is the finest biography of an opera singer in the English language. Through hard work and great genetics, La Malibran (1808-1836) became the most charismatic and gifted singer of her age. The author unerringly uncovers and reveals the most characteristic tales about this fascinating woman. He so accurately captures her personality, energy, talents, achievements and fanatic drives that the reader soon feels he knows her intimately. From there, it is a short step to falling in love with her, and every reader does. A wonderful tale about a great woman. Not to be missed by anyone interested in the history of great singing. Freeman Gunter

This extraordinarily vivid book is rapidly gaining a legendary status of its own to match that of its subject, one of the greatest opera singers who ever lived. Author Bushnell has unerringly found and revealed the most telling and characteristic tales about this unique woman: singer, composer, horsewoman, pioneer feminist, social activist, muse and icon of the Romantic era. Right from the beginning the reader begins to feel that he knows this fascinating woman personally. From there, it is a short leap to falling in love with her and every reader does. Possibly the most effective biography of a singer ever published in English. A must-read for anyone interested in the dawn of Bel Canto singing or the life of this great and beguiling woman and the musical dynasty she represents. Highly recommended.

Mark Twain: A Literary Life builds upon earlier writings, exploring the relationships between Twain's life and his literary output. Biographical and literary background probes blend in an excellent survey which draws important links between the events in Twain's life and his literary productivity.

Martin Grove Brumbaugh was an eminent educator who became Governor of Pennsylvania at a time when some Republicans sought their own alternative to the Democrats' educator turn politician of Woodrow Wilson. Brumbaugh, though, proved to the Republican leaders that he was smart enough not to allow himself to be led by their will. As Governor, he successfully fought for and won a child labor law and a workers compensation program and defended women's suffrage. As a religious pacifist and opponent of entry into World War I, he as Governor made an intellectual choice to perform his obligations as Governor to be the leader of his state's military against what might well have been his contrary personal feelings. He was a man who made tough choices, and he was penalized and hailed for those decisions.

This biography favorable captures the essence of Martin Grove Brumbaugh. He enjoyed learning and built upon his education towards furthering his endeavors. When once questioned how long it took him to write a speech, he responded "the preparation of that speech took me just five minutes--and 40 years." The bulk of his working life focused on education issues.

Growing a mustache to hide his youth, Brumbaugh was elected County Superintendent of Schools at the age of 22 in 1884. Winning election by just one vote, it became his duty to annually visit 200 schools with 235 teachers and 9,000 teachers during an era when the average age of a teacher was 25. Brumbaugh distinguished himself by objecting to the fact that male teachers earned far more than female teachers, an issue he remained devoted to throughout his life. Further, he designated Music and Drawing as core courses. Braumbaugh was also an early supporter of requiring teachers to pass qualifying examinations before they could teach. He developed such an exam. One year, about half the prospective teachers failed his exam.

The education programs fought for by Brumbaugh led him to become an unofficial but important advisor Louisiana schools from 1889 through 1893. He was saddened by the poor conditions of many of the Louisiana schools he visited. He brought the concept of blackboards to schools that were unfamiliar with them. Brumbaugh returned to Pennsylvania to further his own studies. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he resumed his crusade for education improvements, including fighting for offering college classes during evenings, weekends, and summertime. In 1989, he became the President of the Pennsylvania State Teachers' Association.

Brumbaugh became Puerto Rico's first Commissioner of Education in 1900. His tenure was controversial. He persuaded President McKinley to increase funds for schools in Puerto Rico. He was accused of purchasing school desks in an improper fashion and was questioned for having schools purchase a textbook he wrote, decisions he vigorously defended as legal and proper as he had great faith in his own work.

Brumbaugh returned to Pennsylvania to serve as Philadelphia's Education Commissioner. He found a system where Philadelphia's Republican ward leaders were powerful influences on education policies as each ward had a 12 member school board in addition to each ward sending one representative to a citywide Board of Education. Some school directors were caught and successfully prosecuted for selling teacher positions. As Philadelphia's Commissioner, Brumbaugh assisted in establishing the first Traders School in America, almost tripled the salaries of female teachers (who still remained with less pay than male teachers), led a successful drive to create a new state school code, and, noting there were over 50,000 Black students, and increased the number of Black teachers from 49 to 97.

Physical fitness became a priority of Brumbaugh's, who recognized the connection between fitness and learning. In 1907, Brumbaugh became President of the Playgrounds Association of Philadelphia where he sought donations to purchase vacant lots near schools to turn them into equipped playgrounds.

The Philadelphia Republican machine in 1914, led by the Vare brothers, decided Brumbaugh made an attractive candidate for Governor. Brumbaugh agreed to run. The Vare brothers had their opponent in a statewide Republican power struggle, Boies Penrose, agree to a compromise ticket with Penrose for U.S. Senator and Brumbaugh for Governor. Running for office was something that was alien to his Brethren religion, and there were some Brethren who felt that had Brumbaugh prayed properly he never would have become a candidate. Brumbaugh, though, strongly defended his desire for government service and even declared that anyone who criticized Pennsylvania's government committed treason.

Brumbaugh defeated Vance McCormick in being elected Governor and his margin of victory likely helped the political boss Boies Penrose to a more narrow election. Brumbaugh then returned his more moral roots and, stunned to realize he suddenly controlled 54,000 patronage jobs, began to stand up to the Republican leaders who had persuaded him to run. Penrose openly vowed revenge. When he vetoed a bill that would allow railroads, a powerful lobby and key backer of the Republican Party, to be required to have one less person on crew on each train, the Republican power brokers began splitting with Brumbaugh. Brumbaugh offered himself as a favorite son candidate for President, as some Republicans thought Brumbaugh was the Republican academician answer to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Yet, Brubmaugh received only 21 Pennsylvania delegate votes with 34 Pennsylvania votes going to Philander Knox for President.

Penrose attempted to have Brumbaugh impeached. Republican legislators loyal to Penrose accused Brumbaugh of diverting $30,000 of a legislative contingency fund for Executive Mansion maintenance expenses. A resolution to investigate the Governor passed the legislature. The Auditor General, though, stated that Executive Mansion expenses should not be paid for by the Governor personally. The impeachment movement failed.

While Governor, Brumbaugh reluctantly signed into law a direct inheritance levy. He successfully pushed and won passage of bills that increased the minimum salaries of teachers and superintendents. He fought for and lost an attempt to abolish capital punishment.

Brumbaugh, both for religious reasons and representing a state that had 12% of its population of German descent, spoke out for staying neutral in the war in Europe that would later be known as World War I. When America entered the war against Germany and its allies, Penrose loyalists in the legislature feared Brumbaugh would not properly exercise his duties of Commander in Chief of the Pennsylvania National Guard. They unsuccessfully sought to place the National Guard under legislative control. Brumbaugh though declared that being American was more important than his pacifism. He performed his National Guard administrative duties and further created a Pennsylvania Reserve Militia to assist the State Police due to the depletion of the Guard within the state.

After serving as Governor, Brumbaugh was to have served as the State War Historian, yet legislators allied with Penrose objected and the appointment did not occr. Sadly, many World War I documents were collected but never properly categorized. Brumbaugh, other than continuing his advocacy of education, physical fitness, and recreation, never returned to politics. Brumbaugh left with a distate for politics, claiming "the whole mess of nonsense that crept upon our statute books ...is more honored today in its breach than it is observance." Thus, Brumbaugh, was perhaps an accidental politician who though rose to the demands of the office. This book is an excellent examination into this life.

Now in a newly revised and expanded second edition, I Dwell In Possibility: A Memoir by retired educator Toni McNaron is the personal history and testimony of a woman who grew up witness to southern apartheid in Alabama and who endured a long internal battle in search of her artistic and sexual identity. The thoughts, life history, and spiritually evolutionary experiences of an award-winning writer and educator make for a riveting, inspirational, and thoroughly absorbing read. I Dwell In Possibility is especially recommended for Women's Studies reading lists and academic reference collections.

This is a short version, upgraded, of S. Moore's _Marx on the Choice between Socialism and Communism_. The author's argument is:
"Pointing out that Marx deffines communist economies as classless economies without markets, this book examines his claim that classless economies with markets are in some sense inferior to communist economies. From its analysis, two conclusions emerge. First, Marx's major arguments for abolishing commodity exchange rely on moral and philosophical premises, derived from Feuerback in the earlier writings and from Hegel in the later. Second, Marx's ideal of a communist economy is incompatible with his materialist approach to history...'
Your move.

This is one of the most useful and interesting of the Marx biographies and shows us another Marx, behind the man of fiction who was a later invention. Christopher Hill in _The Experience of Defeat_ details a host of figures in the English Civil War, from the Levellers to the Fifth Monarchists, who were written out of history, and who had to live with failed revolutionary lifetimes. We forget the actual experience of Marx, the experience of defeat after 1848, and his persistence nonetheless without illusions documenting the capitalism of his time and era. After the grotesquerie of the twentieth century Communists it is significant to remember this other Marx.
This is surely the experience of the current left, and one might expect it to end as forgotten as the defeated figures from Munzer onward--save that the right will not rest, and will reinvent slavery or worse if left to their devices, while the current left fantasies a series of leftist fictions, among them about Marx.
It might help to look at the failure of Marxist theory, the experience of defeat, behind the unique brilliance of Marx, and at least know the history, starting with Marx's challenge to Hegel's philosophy of right. This work shows the problems that Marx experienced in his theoretical struggles, and shows, for example, the inability of Marx to complete his life's project, Capital. This aspect of the book is compelling, and often quietly filtered out. Marxists have rarely known what they are talking about, but, like the Levellers, will always accompany the definition of modernism.
Very acute biography.

I was looking for a translation of 'Master of Game' having studied the original manuscript, written in circa 1400, so I was delighted to find this 1909 translation from the old English.

It brings to life the fascinating world of the medieval hunt with all its ritual and symbolism and was for the most part based largely on the famous French text 'Livre de Chasse'.

Even if you are, like me, repelled by hunting itself (and it is graphic in places) it still remains one of the best first hand accounts of the habits of royalty and their leisure pursuits of the Middle Ages and it is for this insight that I'd would recommend it to readers.

The original author, Edward Plantagenet, wrote the book for Henry V and was himself killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415.

Throughout the book Edward describes the nature and habits of wildlife and how best to hunt them.
He reveals the importance of hunting, not merely as a leisure pursuit, but as a means of becoming proficient in combat ( a regular feature of life in the Middle Ages). He also explains, with some passion, that whilst out hunting, a man is less likely to be lured by the temptations of the seven deadly sins!

But perhaps the most fascinating aspect is the snapshot this book provides of the wildlife that once roamed England's countryside - the hart, wild boar and wolves - which sadly are no more.

"Masterpiece Studies" is one art historian's proposal to emphasize the influence of contemporary European music, primarily Wagner, on the production of three painters: Manet, Van Gogh and Monet. At the same time, Emile Zola's novel "L'Oeurve" is considered as Zola's reaction to the Impressionist "threat" to his realist sensibilities.
Manet's "Bar at the Folies-Berger" is a late masterpiece that challenges Zola, who will then create a failed version of Manet in his novel. Investigating Van Gogh's series of "La Berceuse" paintings, Champa explores how the series fits into the idea of "masterpiece" or "copies". Finally, Monet breaks down the single-masterpiece concept with his extended practice of painting series (cathedral, haystacks).
The depth of understanding about the subject(s) is rivalled only by the evident love Champa feels for his Studies.

This is a great resource for all descendents of James McKnight, or anyone interested in the history of Adams and Crawford counties of Pennsylvania. Detailed stories of lives great and small, from James' day to almost the present day.