Pennsylvania Books

An excellent source-book for anyone studying Middle English. It compiles an extensive selection of excerpts which demonstrate the ways in which medieval English writers struggled with the concept of writing in English, and defended their use of the vernacular. The accompanying essays range from excellent to mediocre, but the texts themselves make the book worth buying. By compiling texts about medieval literary theory, this book begins to fill a major gap in medieval studies.

Detailed drawings with detailed parts listed on many fish. Some fish described in detail are the soft rayed fish, spiney rayed fish, brook trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, coho salmon, chinook salmon, koanee salmon, northern pike, muskellunge, the chain pickerel, the grass pickeral and redfin pickerel, brown bullhead, black bullhead, yellow bullhead, white catfish, channel catfish, walleye, yellow perch, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, rock bass, green sunfish, warmouth, redbreast sunfish, pumpkinseed, bluegill, blue spotted sunfish, longear sunfish, white crappie,etc. an unusual booklet for your collection and reading pleasure.

Buckley's work on the agonizingly long and complex courtship of a distinguished Presbyterian minister (and later Confederate officer) and the divorced daughter of a Governor of Virginia is extraordinary.

The number of letters contained in this volume, PAINSTAKINGLY transcribed from handwriting that is (at least 50%) illegible, is astounding. The story told is compelling for even a cynical 21st century observer of love and life . . . and a rare chronicle of the political and personal impact of 19th-century Presbyterian varying "insights" into the mind, will, and intent of an sometimes angry and always fearsome God.

The notes and bibliography are priceless. They alone make the book a must-have resource for anyone interested in the 19th century history of southern Presbyterian protestantism, women's rights, religious bigotry, Rockbridge County, Lexington and most of the rest of Virginia. . . . . not to mention the geneaologies of perhaps half the population of the entire valley of Virginia.

Detailed, execellent, and pound for pound . . . no better value.

A credit to an editor's labor of love . . . and to the University of Nebraska Press for publishing it.

Lincoln at Gettysburg in the midst of the Great Civil War dividing the nation, and causing the loss of so many American lives redefines the goal of that nation, and promises it a new birth of freedom. In it he sets forth the ideal that will bind the nations wounds, and bring it together again in pursuit of that freedom and justice that is its founding goal. Lincoln at Gettysburg redefines America to itself , for the duration of that war and for the generations to come. He tells a people the essence of what it is in solemn deep and heartfelt tones that will reverberate not only in the hearts and minds of his own countrymen but throughout the world as a whole .
Lincoln at Gettysburg is the American soul in liberty being told to mankind who may be inspired too to at last come to the day when government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from this earth.

This book was very valuable when I was researching my novel, "A Daughter Of Liberty," by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch.

This book provides a comprehensive insight of East Indians immigration to the United States from 1790 to 1989. The authors discussed the historical, economic and social factors that influence the emigration of East Indians from India and migration to the United States. Outlines the Indian community's struggle for acceptance and opportunities, the secret of their success as a model minority community and the need to retain their culture and tradition.

Having grown up in Steelton, PA, the home of author John Bodnar and the focus of his study, I can attest to both the throughness and veracity of his research. The main thesis is that laborers in the growing American steel industry who were of Southern Slavic and African American heritage faced cultural stratification in the mills and mill towns that promoted ethnic separation and inhibited social and economic mobility. Driving forces and the struggle for power in an era long gone are well presented in this readable volume.

Don Skinner's new memoir of growing up in northwest Pennsylvania in the 1930s and '40s is is a must-have for folks with a small-town upbringing, those with a passing interest in community life of half a century ago, or anyone looking for a lovely, comforting, satisfying book. This chronicle is often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes throat-catchingly poignant, and always vividly and expertly presented.

The most striking aspect this book is Skinner's incredible imagery: whether he is describing an unanticipated trip down Main Street attached by his snowsuit to the bumper of a Model T Ford, or an impoverished African-American man plucking lumps of coal from the floodwaters of a creek, or a squabble with his sister and brothers to claim the cream at the top of the morning milk-bottle, the reader is instantly and charmingly transported into young Don's world.

While the greater part of the book describes a gentle community and a child's life in a loving, close-knit family, Skinner doesn't shy away from tackling more troubling issues, both personal and societal: his father's untimely death when Skinner was only seven; the failure of the local educational system to recognize and address his learning disability; the years of World War II, when an unbearable number of the town's sons and daughters left and never returned; the tacit subculture of racism; the simmering anti-Catholic bias of some of the community's Protestants. This is by no means a view through rose-colored spectacles, but Skinner treats his subject with wisdom, sagacity, and affection. A very enjoyable read.

This book is indispensable for any student of American History. I read it last year and thought it so interesting that I read it again this week. If you have not yet read Dr. Gary North's "Political Polytheism," then I recommend that you read "In the Midst of a Revolution" first. David Hawke's work details the microcosmic legal and covenantal revolution at the colonial level (Pennsylvania) that Dr. North details at the macrocosmic, federal level, which also occurred in Pennsylvania. Whether you hold to a high view of the U.S. Constitution or not, you should not ignore these two books. The parallels between what went on in the narration of this book and the secret discussions and outworkings of the Constitutional Convention are staggering. Consider a few similarities: both conventions were held in secret, both new governments were founded upon the "authority of the people," both rejected Trinitarian oaths for civil office, and both circumvented the existing legal civil government in founding the new. There was even a proto-Madison named James Cannon who was, like Madison, passionately against Trinitarian oaths (and he also got his way). I highly recommend it, as did Rushdoony, and I agree with North that the elimination of the Trinitarian oath for service in the federal civil government is the key to understanding our current situation (besides the failure of the church to preach the whole counsel of God). The quote of the book is this statement by prophet Christopher Marshall: "Farewell Christianity when Turks, Jews, infidels, and what is worse Deists and Atheists are to make laws for our State" (Hawke, 193).

This is an excellant book for those with an interest in how the Fugitive law of 1850 was applied. The book is based on the trial of a slave named Jane Jackson who took advantage of Pennsylvania's freedom law, that states that once a slave sets foot on Pennsylvanis's soil they are free.

The main character in the story though is not Ms. Jackson but a white abolitionist named Passmore Williamson who "aided" Ms. Jackson and here two children in their escape for there owner" a Col. John Hill Wheeler an U.S. diplomat on his way to Central American and was passing through Philadelphia when Williamson with the help of some black dock workers and ships crew made the snatch and relese of the Jackson family.

The story has no real clear cut conclusion and is a telling tale of how often U.S. courts can be less the conclusive in there findings. If you are a Civil War bluff who is interested in the war beyond the battles and personalities this makes a good read.