Pennsylvania Books

Although the book focuses on images of Clinton County, PA, it truly presents a broader and fascinating perspective on the people and the development of small communities throughout the US. This compelling pictorial history takes one through the development of transportation via wagon, train, boat, and airplane, the rise and fall of lumbering and other industries, the evolution of education from one-room schoolhouses to universities, the strong sense of service of local citizens, the effects of natural disasters, and social activities in the days before television, movies, and the Internet.

I loved the images of the people the most: the eight man lumber crew standing ready with saws and moonshine, miners, factory workers, merchants with all sorts of wares, schoolchildren, college students (as early as 1895), soldiers, and people attending all sorts social outings and sporting events--skating on the frozen river, bathing in the creek, clowning in a parade, and even men and women swapping hats.

Don't miss this delightful book!

It's said that those that forget their history are doomed to repeat it, at least that's what my American history teacher kept telling me. It's been some time since a book on Clinton County has been released, and this will make a fine addition to your book shelf. The book by Eric M. Smith has some great vintage photos and interesting history. Hey, if you don't know where you've been, how do you know where you are going???

Author of "Hobo Finds A Home" and editor of "Of A Predatory Heart"

I bought this book for my grandfather in January of 2000. He immigrated to America with my grandmother and father from Lago, Calabria, Italy and worked as a miner and mine rescue worker in Pennsylvania during the days of H.C. Frick.

He turned 91 in December of 1999, but he vividly remembered his days in those mines until his death in April of 2000, when black lung finally weakened his heart, causing him to pass. Reading this book was one of the final acts of his long, admirable and often difficult life, and he assured me that this book portrays conditions inside the mines and in the company towns very accurately. The book tells the tales of the coal barons, but it is much more. It recalls the coal mining region's contribution to the building of the United States and is a testament to the immigrant spirit of those who made it possible.

This is an historically correct accounting of the beehive coke industry of Fayette and Westmoreland Counties of Pennsylvania (Connellsville Coke Region), which dominated the region from the end of the Civil War until the end of World War Two and was largely responsible for the growth of the Pittsburgh steel industry. Ms. Sheppard tells the story of the Coal Barons and their miners, mostly European immigrants, without taking sides in an issue which continues to this day. Financial manipulations and the growth of the unions are described in great detail. Her account of the rise and fall of Uniontown, Pa. coal baron J.V. Thompson is particularly intriguing, as is the story of Henry Clay Frick, one of America's premier industrialists. A must-read for any student of Pennsylvania mining or industrial history.

Wow, I loved it. What a story. My grandfathers worked in mines. It gave me a great insight to their struggles. The stories they told me in my child hood were explained in detail. I am not much of a book reader, but I could not put this book down. Gripping. All persons who work for a living should read this book. See what these people did to pave the way for all of us. Be thankful and don't let their stuggles go for not in this era of corperate greed. A must read for all union members.

This is a griping historic novel. It brings forth emotions while being grounded in hard facts. Readers walk away with expanded knowledge of the events and issues facing miners of past years while reading expertly constructed storylines.
This book brings vivid images of life as a Scranton coal miner a century ago. The insensitivity of mine bosses is shown, as they were upset at mining accidents not for the sake of those injured yet because of production delays. Further lack of feeling is shown when mine owners would pay for the removal of dead mules in mines, yet families would have to pay to bring the bodies of their dead relatives from mines.
We learn a main reason why mine owners were insentivies was that it was railroad companies that owned most of the mines. Laws passed allowed rail companies to control the transportaiton of coal. Railrod companies gobbled up owning coal mines and refused to transport coal of competitors. The owners of railroads were generally not sympathetic to the plight of miners.
Miners suffered and they reacted. 61,000 miners died nationwide at work from 1838 through 1914. Growing labor unreast was met with company-sponsored attackers that put down unrest and killed some miners. Mine union members were barred from employment. Vigilantes struck back. Mine executives and public officials were killed. Miners marched, and Sheriffs and deputized Sheriffs opened fire shooting and killing miners.
Scranton a century ago was a city with much tension, struggles, and death. This novel brings that Scranton of yesteryear alive. This book about working underground is a rare gem.

I'm a very busy guy who does an awful lot of reading. I made room, however, for this book, and it didn't disappoint. (This is a solid effort!) Eby was able to grab me by the collar and take me back to Spain circa 1936-1939 and place me in the ranks of the Lincoln Battalion. Believe me, I was there.

One important note. Eby does a great job of not romanticizing the Lincolns nor does he demonize their opponents. Very, very balanced.

Written by retired Professor of English Cecil D. Eby, Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War is a fascinating history of 2,800 American fighters who formed a Battalion to fight against Generalissimo Francisco Franco and his right-wing nationalists against the Republican government of Spain during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's. Building upon Eby's previous study published in 1969, "Between the Bullet and the Lie", Comrades and Commissars draws from additional data that Eby gathered in recent decades, including the Lincoln Battalion archives that have been hidden in a Moscow storeroom for sixty years. These papers shed light on some of the most provocative questions concerning the Battalion, including which Americans were persecuted or even executed by the brigade commissariat. An in-depth reference, composed by an author with a solid reputation for expertise, balance, and objectivity on the topic, Comrades and Commissars is a welcome addition to world and military history reference shelves.

This is a very revealing book. It is mostly a synopsis from then existing French and English documents in their dealings with the "locals" of the time, as long as a few first hand accounts by the author. For seventeenth century english, it is not as confusing to read as most. It also sheds light on the way the English (mis)handled the Iroquois, and how most of the five nations remained firmly in their corner anyway, at least most of the time.
Some of the Horrors committed by the Indians and the French (which the French properly and proudly document) actually turned my stomach, and did indeed, as Mr. Colden writes, "offend my Christian sensibilities." Nonetheless, you will learn much of Northeastern Indian customs by reading this book, along with where the English failed in their relationships with these loyal people.

Colden was the assistant governor of New York in the late 1600s. Upon request from the governor, Colden collected accounts from both the French historians and the English historians and wrote a paper to the governor eventually to be sent to the King. The purpose of this paper was to help the governor consider the worth of the Indians to the colonists. Colden knew this paper could eventually end up in the hands of the King so he was extremely careful to be as accurate and objective as possible. If you want to read something that was authentic and yet extremely entertaining, this is the book to read!

Have you ever wondered why county courthouses differ so much from each other? This marvelous book will help you understand that the decisions central to the design and construction of public buildings are influenced by the local perception of image, the politics of money and the functions counties are responsible for carrying out.

Initially, courthouses were the locus of two major functions. Providing a public space for trials, and the recording and storing of public records, particularly those connected to property.

This book examines each of Pennsylvania's 67 county courthouses and provides a lively informed discussion of the design and building of the courthouse, the interior decor, the grounds and the history of the naming of the county and selection of the town as the count seat. The author, a political scientist, who taught and studied local government infuses that background throughout the book.

There are numerous illustrative photographs that help the reader understand the differences in design and emblishment. This is a gem of book that is handy to use when driving in Pennsylvania. For those who work or spend considerable time in courthouses, particularly those in PA, this book is a must read.

This book offers a concise and well-illustrated history of the courthouses in all 67 counties of Pennsylvania. Counties are arranged alphabetically and along with a brief overview of each county, Oliver Williams describes in detail the architectural features of all the courthouses, from their styles to types of cupolas to statuary and sculpture used. Interiors are also dealt with and some of the most interesting (and historic) features of some of the courthouses are in their interiors. In addition, important surrounding buildings - jailhouses, office buildings, etc. - are included and described. Williams has also written an interesting introduction that speaks about county government and courthouse design in America in general. Needless to say, photos of each courthouse, as well as many other public buildings throughout the state, are included. Local history buffs or those interested in the architecture of public governmental edifices, mainly of the 19th century, will enjoy this book and find it useful.

I read through the first ten Mario Balzic novels by K.C. Constantine consecutively, not knowing that I had stopped short of the final book in the series, "Cranks and Shadows." The end of the road for Mario Balzic is a bittersweet conclusion, although over the course of the last few novels I had found myself in total agreement with his wife Ruth that he needs to pay more attention to her and learn to stop being totally consumed by his job as Police Chief of Rocksburg, Pennsylvania. For ten books Balzic has stubbornly avoided doing either and his Achilles heel has been that as good as he is at wearing people done through intense conversations, his wife can turn the tables on him in that particular arena. The question is whether Balzis is going to go out with a bang or with a whimper.

Rockburg is seeing hard times. Already the Sanitation Department, the city's vehicle mechanics, its plumber, and two carpenters have been replaced by private contractors. It has been eight years since Balzic has hired any new officers for the Police Department or that his men have seen a promotion. Now Mayor Kenny Strohn has told Balzic to layoff five officers, leaving him but twenty-five members to police an economically depressed city of 15,000. As if that was not bad enough, Balzic is stunned to discover a small group of heavily armed, camouflaged commandos rappelling out of a blue-and-white helicopter. The chief cannot get any answers out of these para-military figures, which means he is going to start asking hard questions. When he learns what is going on in his town and discovers that not everybody has the same idea of public service that has been the rock upon which Balzic has built his career, he realizes it is time to reconsider what is left of his life.

The first part of "Cranks and Shadows" was a bit of rough going for me because it seemed that Balzic was no longer raging against the injustice of the world around him but had been reduced to ranting. His conversations, always the strong point of these novels and the way by which he does his job, were becoming decidedly one sided and it was becoming commonplace for people to tell Balzic they were not telling him things he should probably know because they did not want to get into it with him. But then there is a point in the story where everything changes and Balzic does more listening to Ruth and engages in more introspective examinations of his life. Constantine is setting up not only his character for the end of the road, but his readers as well.

The ending to "Cranks and Shadows" is not particularly satisfying, but that presupposes that a "happy" ending is possible in Balzic's world of Rocksburg in the Reagan-Bush eighties where the end of revenue sharing changed everything for local governments. Constantine cannot be faulted for providing a realistic conclusion to Balzic's career and it is difficult not to agree that there is an appropriateness to the way the story ends given the rocky road the character has traveled. After all, to quote my old college professor, nobody promised fair. These eleven Mario Balzic novels, the first half of which are more traditional mystery books, remains a superb character study of irascible hero and the particular region he calls home. I realize this is not Constantine's last novel and I will be interesting to see what it is like to read one his novels that is not about Mario Balzic.

K.C. Constantine started his publishing career with The Rocksburg Railroad Murders, which was published by a small literary press in Boston. Over the years, Constantine's eye and skill have become so remarkable that he transcends both the mystery genre and the limitations of series character works.

Constantine has an ear for dialogue that rivals George V. Higgins, and his narrator, Police Chief Mario Balzic, is a proud, despairing, upstanding man in a town that's been falling apart for 20 years. Rocksburg is the mystery novel's answer to Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, rendered with all the family intrigue and hardscrabble perseverance alive and intact. Often there's no murder, or mystery in a conventional sense in these novels -- the thing that is grand about them is that through Balzic's eyes we can see our everyday lives as a mystery, where we do the best we can with the clues we've got.

This book might be a textbook for a first level graduate course in gender variance. If you've already read a lot on the subject, this book will help you to organize your thoughts (and your library). It's a wonderful survey, both from a historical standpoint and from a cross-cultural standpoint. There is also a critical, but sensible, review of the various biological, psychological and sociological explanations of gender variance. The authors suggest that no one explanation suffices; this book was written in 1993 and although a lot has been learned since then, I would guess that they would draw the same conclusion today if they were preparing a second edition. Which I hope they are! Either way, they also argue that gender variance is not a disease (but we already knew that, didn't we!) unless it causes other problems in the life of a particular individual. Although I have described this book as a "textbook", it isn't at all dry, musty and academic. There are endnotes for each chapter which you can reference for aditional reading, and rather than a bibliography the final chapter is the authors' well-thought out list of recommendations for additional reading. Because they tell you why they selected these books, you will find their recommendations very useful. An unusual book---a great textbook and a great read!

A marvelous read that goes well into the sexological depths of cross dressing. It resists a disease model approach discussion of gender variance and gives a more interdisciplinary account. Since the authors have been providing great contributions to the field of transgender studies for so long, they are easily able to provide historical analyses of cross dressing, sex and gender that are rivetting.

This is but one of the amazing texts in their treasure trove. It can easily be read by both scholars and a general reader since it is so accessible and well written.

This is a great read. It is clear and concise, and offers a great look into the time period.

This book is a well-focused incursion into several ongoing debates in early American historiography. Anyone who has read academic history about that period in the last thirty years should be aware of the republicanism-liberalism debates as well as the arguments surrounding the development of capitalism in the early republic.
Shankman's book focuses on Pennsylvania politics during the years of the Jefferson and Madison administrations as well as the decades immediately prior and after. Pennsylvania had the most advanced and diversified economy of any of the states. For that reason, Shankman believes that the arguments among the various factions of the Jeffersonian party ended up being of great consequence. Much of the rest of the country followed Pennsylvania's lead and the broad consensus that came out of Pennsylvania in regards to the meaning of democracy and the state's role in economic development became the national consensus for the first half of the nineteenth century.
Shankman's first chapter is a superb exposition of the development of the opposition to Hamilton's economic policies and to Adam's assertion of national power in reaction to the Whiskey Rebellion and in the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. His exposition is concise and very even handed. On the state level, three strands of Jeffersonians emerged: the Quids, the Snyderites and the Philadelphia Democrats. Shankman delineates their differences and traces those to differences in their geographical origins and social status.
As long as they were a party of opposition these three variants were able to work together. With the election of Jefferson in 1800 their differences fractured their alliance.
This is the meaning of Shankman's title. The "crucible of conflict" is practically a mantra throughout this book. The idea is that the political debates and electoral conflicts in Pennsylvania drove the Jeffersonian's thought in directions it would not otherwise have gone. In the end, they had to either give up some of their cherished ideals or be brushed aside in state politics as irrelevant.
For example, one of the basic assumptions of the thought of the time was the idea of "the people". There was this sense that there was a common interest that united the whole populace. If no one started out from a position of too much relative wealth or political influence and if all were allowed to freely pursue their dreams then no major conflicts could develop among the people. If there was discord, it was due to distortions in the system, e.g., the judges manipulating the judicial system in defiance of the majority (the more things change...) The problem that the Jeffersonians had to face was "the creative endeavors of certain citizens were causing inequality to grow among citizens" (p.168).
The eventual solution to the issue of equality and economic development was to allow everyone an "untrammeled right to pursue his self-interest" (p.165).
This development is played out in Shankman's telling of the 1805 governor's race. This chapter is another incisive exposition. Shankman is an excellent writer.
One final but very important point. In his final chapter, Shankman positions his thesis in the ongoing debates that I mentioned at the beginning. He expounds on Merrill and Wilentz' point that it is easy to look back at this period and to see the development of a capitalist economy as being inevitable. They point out that while everyone back then embraced "commerce and commodity production" that that is not the same thing as capitalism (p.240). This is a common problem in historical writings. A wide open development is seen as having been almost inevitable. One of the real strengths of Shankman's book is that he reminds us just how wild and wooly in possibility this period was. Capitalism was not inevitable. We could have gone a different way. This is a superb telling of why we went the way we did.

Damn Dutch, is not only highly readble and flawlessly presented, it is extremely thought provoking. If you want to immerse yourself in an excellent history that reads like a novel, pick up Damn Dutch. Co-author Keller shines and adds significantly to the power of this story that has long been overshadowed by the Civil War's more "popular" vingettes.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Valuska and Keller's Damn Dutch. It not only covered the actions of Pennsylvania's German soldiers in the important battle of Gettysburg, but also those of the Pennsylvania Dutch ((descendents of eighteenth century German-speaking immigrants who developed their own dialect and culture in the Keystone State).

Although approximately two hundred thousand native Germans and many descendents of Germans fought for the Union during the Civil War, scant attention has been paid to their wartime military service or how they viewed the war. Therefore, Damn Dutch is a welcome addition to the very limited number of studies about Germans in the Civil War.
This book is well researched and well written. It is both a military history and a social history, and in addition describing military actions also addresses how the battle of Gettysburg and the Civil War in general affected Pennsylvania's immigrant Germans and the Pennsylvania Dutch. I highly recommend it.