Pennsylvania Books

This book offers a glimpse into the world of the Amish which has basically remained unchanged. It is a world uncomplicated by todays technological advances. It is a world that I respect and admire. The photographs in this book brought me closer to the amish people and captured the beauty of the people and the land. George Tice is a master of photography.

Despite when this was written, Mr. Tome was evidently so literate that it is easy to understand even today. He paints a fascinating picture of what life was like in Pennsylvania in the late 1700's and early 1800's

Excellent book for seniors in the Pittsburgh area.

There are so many pluses to this outstanding picturebook! I believe it is Wallner's best (and I like all of her books)! French language, American history, dogs, flight, etc....there is so much. A great piece of obscure American history! Every year this is one of my second graders' favorites!

When their nation called . . .
These men were the first to respond . . .

Following the attack on Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln, now faced the greatest crisis to ever befall the young American nation, issued a proclamation calling upon 75,000 Northern volunteers to suppress the hostile Southern rebellion. Throughout Northern towns and cities thousands of men, young and old, left home and family to begin their journey as American soldiers. Among the first to respond were five companies of volunteer militia from the Pennsylvania counties of Schuylkill, Berks, Lehigh, and Mifflin. Within a few days, these companies, numbering just over five hundred men, marched into Washington and into history as the very first troops to reach the capital following the start of the American Civil War. Now, for the first time since 1910, the story of these five "First Defender" companies is told. From their enlistment into service to their harrowing march through the city of Baltimore and through their three-month term of service, First in Defense of the Union traces the history of these companies by relying largely upon the soldiers' letters and diaries. With First in Defense of the Union, Hoptak dramatically brings the story of these five companies vividly to life, and commands attention to their distinguished and illustrious place in American History.

My family and I really enjoyed looking at the pictures in this book. It is fantastic about the many horses. Great gift

Folkways is a well indexed source of Wessex primitive thought. Its divisions make for easy research. You can find examples of folk medicine under the chapter Folk-Medicine or folk humor under Folk Wit and Wisdom. Fourteen chapters in all. It is the only resource I've found which gives a decent explanation of the Cerne Giant. As a bonus, it does a apt job of providing illustrations that convey Thomas Hardy's use of these folkways. In her fourteen chapters author Firor has covered the full breadth of those folkways from Omens, Ghosts, Magic, seasonal festivals, country wit, ancient religions, and that period of Napoleonana.

Written by Katherine J. Parkin, Food is Love: Advertising and Gender Roles in Modern America is a scholarly examination of the American cultural precept that women should express love by serving food to their families (regardless of the actual amount of work involved in its preparation). In particular, the concept that women could use food preparation to give themselves sexual allure, make their marriage happy, and improve their family's social standings and prospects became the favored revolving theme of advertisers. Food advertisements at once both celebrated women's homemaking talents, and threatened women's insecurities to coerce the female demographic to buy the right products - their products. Heavily researched, with extensive notes and an index, Food is Love is a singularly revealing insight into this consumptive and surprisingly constant dimension of the American female and cultural psyche.

Foreigners In Their Own Land: Pennsylvania Germans In The Early Republic by Steven M. Nolt (Assistant Professor of History, Goshen College) is the story of Pennsylvania's German population, ranging from the first immigrants to arrive and continuing through the assimilation of their generations of descendants, and how these people were able to maintain their German cultural heritage and background while embracing their citizenship and identity as Americans. Meticulously researched and highly recommended, Foreigners In Their Own Land is a truly fascinating, scholarly, and highly accessible study of the religious, political, and philosophical evolution of this specific American subculture.

"What makes [Goffman] compelling is not just the aptness of his observations or the rigors of his theoretical scheme but also his considerable gifts for rendering the everyday as bizarre and amusing."-New York Times

Forms of Talk extends Erving Goffman's interactional analyses of face-to-face communication to ordinary conversations and vebal exchanges. In this, his most sociolinguistic work, Goffman relates to certain forms of talk some of the issues that concerned him in his work on frame analysis. This book brings together five of Goffman's essays: "Replies and Responses," "Response Cries," "Footing," "The Lecture," and "Radio Talk."

Of lasting value in Goffman's work is his insistence that behavior-verbal or nonverbal-be examined along with the context of that behavior. In all of these classic essays, there is a "topic" at hand for discussion and analysis. In addition, as those familiar with Goffman's work have come to expect, there is the wider context in which the topic can be viewed and related to other topics-a characteristic move of Goffman's that has made his work so necessary for students of interaction in many disciplines.