Pennsylvania Books

I have several books from this publisher and this is one of the best. Due to the loss of so many homes and businesses from the purposed Tocks Island Dam project, this book is an excellent record of what once was in the Pocono area along the Delaware on the PA side. The photo captions provide the text in this series and they are both informative and well written.

This book is exactly what I'd hoped it would be. Lots of information and photos of the Poconos/ Delaware Water Gap area. We wanted to know something about the history of this area, we just purchased a home here.

There is no more thoughtful observer of Pennsylvania politics than Jack Treadway. In this one-of-a-kind book, Treadway brings his insights to the history of 20th century elections in the Keystone State. The result of this massive undertaking is groundbreaking. Trends heretofore unseen by strategists and political pundits are revealed in a way that helps us understand the past and prepare for the future.

Although many of the readers of this book will be college and graduate students, anyone who wants to understand Pennsylvania politics should read this book and thank Treadway for taking the time to compile it.

This book provides an excellent portrayal of how Pennsylvania's history and politics are intertwined. It further shows how political trends help shape this history, and how these trends continue and reemerge.

Readers note how Pennsylvania, the second largest state with the country's third and seventh largest cities in 1900, had its most 20th century population growth primarily along the New York border while the rest of the state's growth stagnated. Of interest, the growth of suburbia fairly stabilized the proportional makeup of the state as the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh metropolitan areas were 47% of the state's population in 1900 and 51% in 2000.

The 20th century saw Pennsylvania change from a state whose economy was based upon the coal and steel industries, to one where manufacturing fell from 30% of the workforce as late as 1970 to 16% in 2000, into a state where service industries now dominate with 34% of the workforce in 2000. This has also created wage shifts as there have been decreases in higher paid manufacturing jobs as lower paid service jobs have increased.

The 20th century also saw the rise of the Democratic Party from one where its urban Democratic leaders cut deals for campaign inactivity in return for patronage jobs from Republican office holders to one in which statewide Republican domination yielded to competition and ultimately to where Democrats surpassed Republicans in voter registration in addition to establishing themselves as the dominant urban party while Republicans dominated suburban and rural voting communities.

The 19th century saw the rise of the Republican political machinery as led by Simon Cameron in the 1860s and 1870s and then Mattew Quay in the 1880s and 1890s. Voter registry laws led to ease of registering voters of the dominant party and ease of striking voters of the challenging party. The Republican one party dominance led to scandals as when it was discovered interest on the state's bank accounts were going to Quay instead of the state. Quay was acquitted of charges yet was refused by the U.S. Senate to be seated as a member of the Senate. Quay resolved the matter by bribing state legislators to elect him back into the U.S. Senate. Boies Penrose took over leadership of the Republican Party following Quay's death in 1903. Voter fraud was widespread with estimates there may have been 50,000 to 80,000 fake names on the voter registration lists as well as commonplace multiple voting by single voters. Penrose was a strong leader although his death in 1921 left the party without a prepared successor which partially led to a weakening of the state Republican Party from then on.

While Republican Party dominance decreased during the 20th century, the author notes that both parties lost influence from the 1960s on. Voters have become more independent in registration and in voting patterns since. The author relates this to historical patterns of independent voting that existed even during times of one party machine dominance.

While Democrats have achieved more registered voters than those registered Republican, the author notes that Republicans have higher turn outs at elections than Democrats. Berwood Yost estimates Pennsylvania actually is a state with a 250,000 Republican statewide voting advantage despite official records giving the registration edge to Democrats. Ticket splitting affects elections, as the author observes that about 20% of voters vote for different parties when voting for President and then U.S. Congress.

As for state legislative elections, the author observes that these elections have become less competitive from 1892 through 1972, except for an increase in competitive elections during the 1930s. Further study notes that legislative elections during the 1970s through the 1990s remained relatively uncompetitive. This is attributed to incumbents being more apt to seek reelection and then enjoying high reelection rates. Also, it is noted that the victory margins for legislative incumbents have tended to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. Thus even when there were significant shifts in party voting patterns in legislative elections by political party, these large victory margins, coupled with both parties tending to have similar numbers of seats at risk, have not resulted in significant changes in legislative representation by party. Thus it is noted that neither Democrat Casey's 68% of the vote for Governor in 1990 nor Republican Ridge's 65% of the vote for Governor in 1998 translated into legislative victories for their party's candidates. Democrats increased their number of Democratic state legislators by four in 1990 and while Republicans found themselves reducing their number of legislators by one in 1998. The author believes there is a maximum of 60 out of 203 state legislative seats where either party has a chance of winning.

General Assembly members in 1901 were more apt to have been people who rose up the political ranks having served in another elective office than General Assembly members in 1995. The author also finds legislators had more partisan backgrounds in 1995 than in 1901. State Senators held their positions the longest, on average, during the 20th century than any other elected position, followed by members of Congress.

This is an excellent descriptive and analytical book that allows readers to learn the results of Pennsylvania's elections. It is highly recommended for students of Pennsylvania politics.

Hilary Masters, a writer's writer, has shaped a vivid novel. At a critical point in his life, Sam Emerson takes stock of where he has been and what his life has meant. The result is a saga that spans continents and decades. Like all of us, the past inhabits Sam's life despite the decades that slipped by. Through a series of flashbacks, Sam relives his unusual childhood filled not with stock characters but deeply imagined people who have histories and souls. "Elegy for Sam Emerson" is compassionate, sharp, and rich with vivid detail. Masters writes perceptively about such diverse subjects as gardening, food, France, Pittsburg, the theatre, race and love. Here he describes a common stone, "All of the past, Emerson thinks, can be kept in a stone. Just an ordinary flat smooth piece of granite you might pick up by a stream and hold to feel its texture, its silent pulse and perfect weight, before you toss it into the water. There goes the Ice Age, and the dinosaurs, Caesar's legions, Lewis and Clark, and Frank Sinatra - the whole catalog of the planet going ker-plunk at midstream. But if you held the stone a little longer, all the sounds and flavors of the past fit themselves into your hand." I enthusiastically recommend this novel. If only there were more books like it.

Elegy for Sam Emerson is a beautifully written work. Not only is the story line captivating, but it is one of those novels that the language and syntax alone make it worth reading. Hilary Masters is indeed a master of the written word.

With her struggles through life she really does make a difference to her poor black students. She works in a high school in the center city Philadelphia. I should know alot about it because I had to do a report on it.

There are things you learn in college about "how to teach," and then there are things you learn in life about teaching. Ms. Decker teaches us lessons, in teaching life. I encourage everyone to read this, but especially new teachers. Too often we think our lack of experience is a negative attribute, yet Ms. Decker has shown how vital it is for schools to have new teachers. Not necessarily young--but new teachers, who are willing and eager to try different techniques.

Anyone who uses the American health care system or works in it should read this book. This story of a Harvard doctor with a brain tumor shows why there is so much needless suffering within our health care system. It's not going to start getting better unless we all look at the problem and do our part to fix it.

Despite its bland title this is a harrowing expose of the relationship between doctors, hospitals and patients. It's also a moving personal story about catastrophe, agonizing recovery and adjustment.

A week after graduating with honors from Harvard Medical School, Heymann suffered a severe seizure and was rushed to the emergency room. Awakening with no memory of the event, she found her arms and legs strapped to a hard slab. Unable to move, surrounded by strangers, she was terrified and kept calling for her husband, wondering what "they" had done to him. No one answered her cries.

And this was only the beginning. As Heymann describes the nightmare of awaiting diagnosis, clinging to the stoicism she learned as a medical student - good patients are quiet patients - she begins to understand that hospitals are constructed around the convenience of the professionals. She reflects on the small things that might ease a patient's anxiety - knowledge mostly. Explanations about what is happening and what they can expect of themselves on release.

Heymann had bled into her brain and surgery was recommended. The operation was botched, through medical oversight, but Heymann's anger about this is less than her anger at the lies, evasions and brush-offs which follow. After numerous conflicting reports, her doctor tells her the hemangioma had all been removed. But one of the books most chilling passages comes later. The pathologist's study concluded that her hemangioma had not been removed. Her doctor never informed her of this report (she does not say how she learned of it).

Discharged after surgery, Heymann is so weak that watching television is too taxing and caring for her toddler son is impossible. No one was prepared for the sort of care she would need. And Heymann herself refuses to compromise her ambitions. She believes strongly that meaning in life comes from helping others. She and her husband (also a doctor) had always intended to work in a clinic in a third world country. They also want a second child.

So she embarks on her grueling internship as soon as possible, terrified of the seizures which may wreck her career. Numerous heart-tugging case histories are interspersed with her own halting progress. Explaining procedures and home care to her patients, she shows how the frightened "difficult" patients are calmed and easier to treat when given a modicum of understanding.

This well-written, moving and deeply scary memoir should be widely read but probably won't be. In a letter Heymann wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine protesting prejudice against people with seizures she described herself as "a physician who has both treated patients with seizures and lived with seizures." The Journal removed only four words. "They would not print that I had lived with seizures, only that I had treated others."

The Estuary's Gift is a beautiful and poignant expression of the connections between people and the coastal environment. Through eight delightfully written essays, Griffith entertains and educates in a poetic, lyrical style that draws the reader into a world that few of us know. Griffith teaches the reader about North Carolina's rich history in commercial fishing by introducing us to the people whose lives are linked to this industry. No matter where you are live, this book will show you the connections between your next seafood dinner , or vacation to the beach, and a unique way of life along the North Carolina coast. If you are from coastal North Carolina, don't be surprised if you see the lives of friends and family reflected in this book.

Through his years of research, Dr. Griffith introduces us to some of the many men and women who as commercial fishermen are deeply rooted in an industry that is much more than a source of income. The North Carolina coast is home to some of the oldest fishing families in the country, and this book speaks for these families and others who make a living from the coastal environment. These people have a sense of culture, community, and history from their lives as fishermen that is threatened by fishing regulations and influences of population growth. These men and women also have an intimate knowledge of the water and its ever-changing conditions that sometimes result in problems for the seafood industry and the future of the esturaries. As they try to express problems they see from their daily contact with the water, many are ignored by rule makers or "experts" in government. Catch limits, closed/open fishing areas, equipment regulations, and license requirements are all examples of policies that were developed by "experts" who do not see the daily effects the rules have in commercial fishing and the coastal ecosystem.

Griffith also addresses how the population boom that along the coast that has impacted the health of the estuaries and the coastal communities. He discusses the impacts of "gift shop" fisheries and revisionist developments that transform the traditional fishing communities into retirement and tourist boutiques that have little appreciation of the past.

The Estuary's Gift is an intimate portrait of a changing way of life that is reflected in changes in communities and families along the coast. By involving us in the lives of men and women who are some of the many estuary's gifts, it speaks for voices not often heard.

These delightfully written eight essays beautifully illustrate the concept of bioregionalism. Telling the stories of the commercial fishers of the Mid-Atlantic, the people who live along the coast of the Albemarle Sound and the Chesapeake Bay and who are farmers, fishers, and crabbers making a living from the water, David Griffin weaves together a powerful tale of the interrelationship of people and their natural environment. Based on extensive interviews over the past ten years, done in part for studies of fishing reglations for the government of North Carolina and others, the reader hears the voices and concerns of the fishers who for generations have lived in harmony with the estuary and its gifts of fish and shellfish. Threatened now by pollution down the Neuse River from the industrial farms, forestry and mining, the fishers are attempting to adapt and earn their living in other ways. They protest the regulations put in place to save the resource from being overfished. So here is a different side of the story from that put forth by many environmentalists, told in the fishers' own words, with empathy for their plight. At what price will the North Carolina and Virginia coastlines be developed for condos and fancy vacation houses? You be the judge of what we are winning and what we are losing.

I am filled with appreciation for the ideals and articulateness of the author of this book. The book argues for an appreciation of the potential of all work to be meaningful in a way that serves humanity in the best sense of professionalism. I think the section of the concluding chapter, "Dedication to Service," should be read aloud in a sacred ceremony by everyone entering any profession whatsoever. The book is comprehensive, balanced, and throughly researched. The author's humanity and commitment shine through, while also displaying his sensitivity to language, his reasonableness, and his wisdom. He is a true philosopher (and educator and scholar and humanist).

It is an extraordinarily original book. I have used its structure both in my book Ethical Choices in Business ( Sage 2003)and in teaching.It has undoubtedly a Marxist flavour. But it provides great insight into the sociology pf professionalism in a capitalist environment. Showing the fragility of professional ethics in a free marekt system it provides a chareacterisitc explanation to the events of Enron and the World.com I was expecting wide acquaintence with this book in the USA durng my recent lecture tour. But I found that it was practically unknown. The author should write more often to further the theme of this book

I read this book as part of an ethics seminar at MIT, and I found it to be one of the best anthropology books that I've read in years. It opens with a strong summary of ethical issues by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, then David Price presents a well-documented and disturbing historical summary of the American Anthropological Association's covert relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency, Gerald Berreman further examines such relationships and others explore other ethical issues.

This book is a must read for any serious anthropologist.

This is a remarkable book that should be read my all anthropologists, or by anyone interested in ethics. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban opens with a comprehensive review of important landmarks in the development of anthropological ethics in America. Her observations of the American Anthropological Association's decission to remove language critical of secret research or espionage are chilling. But then the next chapter by David Price documents an instance of the American Anthropological Association's covert work with the Central Intelligence Agency. Very troubling. Gerald Berreman's chapter further illustrates the problems of covert research, while discussions of the Yanomamo disaster, NAGPRA and other issues makes clear that anthropologists are not removed from important ethical issues.

All anthropologists should read this and think about the impact they have on the lives they impact.

Yet again the folks at Amazon have bungled matters. The other "review" of this book is in fact a review of (or a puff for) the Penn series of translations of Greek tragedy, not of Euripides' "Selected Fragmentary Plays," a scholarly edition offering Greek texts, English translations, and detailed notes on several of Euripides' fragmentary plays. It should also noted that the book in question is the recently published---and long-awaited---second volume of a work whose first volume appeared in 1995. Eventually, there will be a Loeb Classical Library edition of the major fragments of Euripides, but it is unlikely to replace these volumes of Collard et al., for their very full notes will remain invaluable.

I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.

A book that blew me away. Boisen had his first psychotic episode in 1918 and suspected it was a spiritual/religious crisis. In his day people were considered as write offs, lost and abandoned to sanitoriums for the rest of their lives if they showed any signs of mental illness. Boisen however, refused to live out this reality and instead began an amazing journey of discovery, to research other people's experience of psychosis and mental illness. Boisen's book outlines his paradigms and research results. While he was interviewing people in mental hospitals searching for evidence of a spiritual emergence/transendence psychiatrists of the period were supporting the removal of parts of people's bowels to 'cure them'.

I was amazed by Boisen's findings and think it is still incredibly relevant today. If you want to assist and understand someone experiencing psychological crisis read this book.

Much, much more could be said about this book, but suffice to say that this is a necessary read for anyone who has been diagnosed with bipolar or depression (or other mental illness), to help with understanding what Boisen calls one's attempt at "reorganization" that leads ultimately to either a religious experience (success) or to failure, which is described as illness. It is more compelling than most popular works, and much more clinical, even though it's dated.