Pennsylvania Books

This book examines the practice of social science from several angles, like turning a sea shell slowly in your hand, looking at the curves and openings and aspects. The author accomplishes this by looking at social science through the eyes of empirical, phenomenological, critical, and analytical social scientists.

Sound boring? It isn't -- and you can learn from each perspective. You can also learn why there is no one right approach. Some questions fit better into one framework, some into another. Any social scientist who weds him/herself to a given approach is wearing blinders. This book removes those limitations. Ideologies become tools for social examination. This book should be the starting point for any social science student.

Not very many people seem to read this book, which is a shame. In my opinion, this is a book that every serious academic social scientist should read. Bernstein takes on the difficult but extremely important--as well as largely neglected--question of how the social sciences differ from the natural sciences. The book is divided into four parts, which deal roughly deal with naturalist theories, linguistic theories, phenomenology, and critical theory in that order. He has an extraordinary gift for making clear even the most subtle ideas and manages to deftly summarize material that otherwise would be extremely difficult. In the process, he gets to the heart of complex ideas and neatly illuminates the essential problem each has.

The River Ran Red tells the story of the Homestead Strike of 1892 using firsthand sources (for example exerpts from Carnegie's speeches, local and national papers and even memos from H.C. Frick). This book comes alive more than any other book on the strike because it is told by firsthand sources, not a stuffy historian's view.

This is a concise and well-illustrated account of the deadly strike at the Carnegie Steel works at Homestead, Pennsylvania, in July 1892. When workers' wages were cut despite huge financial gains raked in by the industry because of high tariffs, the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers called a strike at the Carnegie mill for July 1. Management decided to treat the strike almost as an outright war on their business, and when Pinkertons were called in to quell the strikers, violence broke out on July 6 in which a number of men were killed. Industrialist Henry Frick was nearly assassinated, and soon troops were brought in to restore order.

This book tells the story through contemporary newspaper reports and magazine articles, congressional testimony taken after the event, excerpts from memoirs and other books - all accompanied by many illustrations and photographs. Short essays by modern historians dealing with the technology of steel making, political issues, foreign groups working in the mills, and changes in the laws, among other topics, put the events in perspective. These were dark days on the labor front, and this book captures the mood and immediacy of the strike magnificently. Highly recommended.

Finally a book that takes you to the unknown, I've had fun riding places I'd never think of going. the Greene County rides were incredible ,the author's comments were right on.

Ive waited a long time for a good biking book for Pennsylvania, and it's finally here. Road Biking Western Pennsylvania offers over 50 rides throughout Western PA, from Erie down to Greene County and as far east as State College. The author does a good excellent job of including rides in every region of Western PA, not just bunched up around the larger cities. The rides are all rated as Rambles, Cruises, Challenges and Classics, which is standard procedure for all Falcon Guide bicycle tour books.

What separates this book from others is that many rides offer length options. It's disheartening to locate a ride in a guidebook for an area you will be visiting, only to find that the only offering is a 62-mile ride with two ridge crossings (much too difficult for me). In quite a few popular biking regions of Western PA, the author developed several tours, thus offering rides for cyclists of many ability levels. Finally, someone's got it right. Even in the hillier southern counties, the guidebook details several rambles that are suitable for even beginner cyclists.

Much of the book is standard Falcon - offering restaurant and accommodation list, ride directions, map, elevation chart, and restroom locations. I must say, however, that Jim Homerosky keeps me interested with his detailed and often zany take on the ride. I found myself reading every ride chapter, regardless of my intent of cycling them. Road Biking Western Pennsylvania is a five-star effort. Regardless of your level of ability and fitness, you'll find something here to suit you. Now, if only it would stop raining...........

This book is everything I want in an art book! A lot of large color reproductions, mainly. Also bioigraphical info and pictures of the artist and his milieu. And a reasonable price!

"Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension", co-authored by Sally Price and her husband Richard (both of whom are professor of American Studies, Anthropology, and History at the College of William and Mary in Virginia) showcases the life and work of the African American artist Romare Bearden (1911-1988) and his Caribbean work during his last twenty years with its themes of 'enchanted places and lush forest settings for sensuous female nudes. Also included is his 'Carnival' series revealing through an artist's eye the quintessential nature of this annual Caribbean celebration. Best known for his paintings and collages of jazz and the rural South, Bearden's work was postumously recognized with an exhibition at the national Gallery of Art in 2003. Enhanced with the inclusion of 130 paintings, as well as a profusion of photographs of Bearden and his friends, "Romare Bearden" also incorporates poet Derek Walcott and writer Albuert Murray's critical assessments of Bearden's enduring legacy, along with the thoughts of such luminaries as James Baldwin, Alvin Alley, and Ralph Ellison. Simply stated, no serious academic library American Art History collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of "Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension".

This book has captured the stuggles of North Philly's young people....28th and Diamond marks a territory where only the strongest survive. This is the best young adult book of all times. I can't wait for the movie to come out. Good job Rachel and keep the books coming.

I remember the first book I read, a typical Dick and Jane primer. I can clearly recall the pictures of the blonde, blue-eyed, perpetually smiling people. As I looked around at my screaming siblings and frazzled mother, I realized Dick and Jane weren't from around my way. I had a hard time believing they were even from this planet. Roxie, on the other hand, is a much more familiar face. I bet I've past her stoop a hundred times. Her troubles and triumphs would fit in comfortably around here. The youth today see enough drama daily to wipe the smiles off Dick and Jane's faces permanently. With touchstones like this book, they will know they are not alone in their struggles to stay safe and sane.
Rachel Slaughter has created a key to open a million young minds. Young ears that aren't trying to hear anything fake, open up to her sermon because she speaks with their voice. When those hungry heads find this book, you can be sure it will be devoured. And you know, the better fed the head, the better it deals with troubles ahead.
Look for the series...

For those of you who think Philly cooking is cheesesteaks and soft pretzels, think again. The Reading Terminal Market is a simply amazing place to shop and eat, and this cookbook brings the flavor home. From Pennsylvania Dutch recipes to lasagna, this is a great book!

History and recipes all in one book! What a great combination. The photos, old and new, also greatly added to my enjoyment of this book.

This is a great cookbook, and the history of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market is an added bonus. I have visited the market, a true gastronomic feast, many times but was never aware of its fascinating history and how it came to be. This knowledge will add greatly to my future enjoyment when I visit again.

I was delighted to find the recipes from some of my favorite vendors and plan to re-create my eating experiences by making many of them.

This book was shipped and delivered in a timely manner. The seller representation of the book was factual.

Duby once again has presented a thorough presentation of economic history of a really tough period for historians. Written records of this time tend to be skewed to the nobility and the clergy while the peasant and the work in the fields is cloaked in darkness. Duby gives us a flashlight to see them, albeit one with a bit of Marxist tone to it. He traverses a wide array of references and resources from very diverse fields of study to support his work. I highly recommend it.

As a member of the 11th PVI Co. I re-enactment unit, and descendant of Richard Coulter and other members of the 11th, and also friend of Helene's. I knew from the manuscript that this was to be an excellent book. More and more people learn a little more about such a tragic time in our past, and their eyes are opened by reading this elloquent rendering of the history of the Old Eleventh and thier mascot.

I thought this was a great story about what a great friend a dog can be. I saw the dog's bronze statue at the 11th PA Volunteer Regiment monument in Gettysburg with the author. We should all have a dog like Sallie.

If you are interested in German food or Pennsylvannia history, this book is for you. It focuses on the food of the Pennsylvannia Germans & how they adapted their own recipes from the old world to available ingredients in Pennsylvania. It talks about ingredients that were available to the Germans & how they prepared, preserved & ate the food. Mr. Weaver not only talks about the food but he includes interesting and sometimes little known facts about the culture that bring our Pennsylvannia German ancestors to life once again. I am so pleased that Mr. Weaver has taken the time to research and preserve for future generations not only the recipes but the stories and history behind the foods of the Pennsylvania Germans.

`Sauerkraut Yankees' by Pennsylvania Food Historian, William Woys Weaver is a treatise and concordance based on a Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook published in Harrisburg in 1848. Titled `Die Geschickte Hausfrau' (The Handy Housewife) and written in `Pennsylvania High German', it was a collection of traditional German and New World recipes done by a printer who acquired many of the recipes by simple plagiarism from many different American and German sources.

While this book is based on the 160-year-old volume, the author contributes an enormous editorial labor to make the material accessible to the modern cook and scholar. And scholarly indeed is this exposition of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking in general. I am from a Pennsylvania Dutch background and have lived on the fringes of this world for all my life and I found things about this group that I have never heard before.

And, after having read dozens of books on the nature of French, Italian, Italian regional, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Philippine, Greek, Lebanese, Moroccan, Turkish, and Thai cuisines, I have to say that this book gives as good or better treatment of the nature of its subject than any others I have read! It is important that what I mean here is not the culinary virtues of the recipes but the illuminating value of the scholarship. In fact, I would NOT recommend this book if what you want is a good book of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. For that, you should go to any number of books by Betty Groff, Phyllis Good, or Mary Showalter. The latter's book `Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking' is especially good, larger collection of recipes.

To that litany of world cuisines, I should add that I have not seen as good an exposition of either `Southern' or `Tex-Mex' cuisines, the two other most clearly defined `home grown' cuisines. While there are dozens of excellent books on `Southern' cooking, not one of them fully characterizes the essence of what distinguishes this cuisine from its European antecedents. Although I must say that southerner James Villas and New Englander John Thorne have both done excellent essays on important aspects of Southern cooking.

Appropriate to the year in which Weaver's source text was first published, it was aimed at the original wave of south German immigrants to Pennsylvania. These are the Mennonites, Amish, Lutherans, and Moravians who came seeking religious freedom in William Penn's colony before the Revolutionary War. And, just as Italian cuisines were transformed by the greater wealth of food available in the New World, so the German's were able to indulge to the hilt all their culinary inclinations.

Unlike the Italians who were virtual vegetarians due to the cost of meat in their native Italy, the South Germans tended to have a very high preference for meat over vegetables. The meat of choice, of course, was pork, as pigs were much easier to raise in Pennsylvania. Sheep did not do well in the Lancaster County summer, and lamb meat simply didn't work well in transposed pork recipes. And, in spite of the great reputation of the Italians for making full use of the porkers, it is the Germans who actually have the widest variety of cured sausages. And, there are the famous scrapples and pig's stomach dishes. No wonder Emeril Lagasse loves Pennsylvania Dutch cooking (`Pork fat rules'). The most distinctive combination of flavors in this cuisine is represented by the famous dish `Schnitz un Gnepp' which may be considered the Pennsylvania German's version of cassoulet. It combines acid from dried apples, starch from dumplings, and sweet and salty flavors from the braising liquid.

It's interesting that many of the dishes commonly associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch such as shoo fly pie are actually late arrivals. And, beef becomes a more important component of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking when the beef ranching in the Midwest and the southwest, plus the railroads for carting them to Chicago and the East make it impractical for Lancaster county small farms to compete in the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets with beef prices. So, they started eating the beef themselves.

This book is oddly reminiscent of the better presentations of Medieval and Renaissance recipes and cookbooks. As in those cases, the original authors gave few exact measurements of ingredients and did not spell out methods in great detail. All of this was assumed since the original authors were writing for people who either learned to cook over many years at their mother's side or as an apprentice to a cook in a royal court or wealthy household.

Thus, the author gives us an English translation of the original `High Pennsylvania German' text and follows this with an exposition of both culinary details the recipe may be assuming and the historical context for each recipe. Each recipe is also presented with an English name, the name in the book (high Pennsylvania German) and a Pennsylvania Dutch dialect (`Pennsylfanisch') name. The commentary also translates, where necessary, the cooking method from open hearth to modern oven or stovetop.

The book does not give the recipes in the same order as in the original. It rearranges them to fit modern cookbook topics with chapters on:

Meats and Hearthside Savories
What the Dutch Call Gefliggel (Poultry)
Fish and Shellfish
A Karrich of Vittles and Herbs (Vegetable Side Dishes)
Soups, Broths, and Stews
Puddings, Pies, and Other Sweets
Siesses and Sauieres (Fermenting, Canning, and Preserves)
Heady Punches and Small Beers

The chapter on pies and sweets is an ample confirmation of Wayne Harley Brachman's (`American Desserts') description of the Pennsylvania Dutch as `dessert central' for the United States. The chapter on canning explains why the leading producer of catsup (H. J. Heinz) is a Pennsylvania company!

This is clearly a book for people who love to read about food. If you simply want a good chicken potpie recipe, get James Beard's book on poultry. But, if you love connecting the dots between foods at different times and different places, this is a book for you!

This book is a clear outline of how suburbia took over and imposed a lifestyle on us that I'll bet we didn't want. Do you live in a house that requires you to drive to get anythinq? Even a loaf of bread? The ideas are clear, simple and seem so obvious. An easy read about a very complex subject.

This is the best book available on the problems of sprawl. Preservation Pa.(sponsor of the book) and Hylton recently received a National Trust for Historic Preservation Honor Award for the impact the book has had. The book can be read in 2 hours; the photography is stunning.