Pennsylvania Books

They Say There Was a War collects fifty detailed, personal narratives of men and women who served in the United States military in all different services and theaters during World War II. The individuals tapped to tell their stories in their own words range from a survivor of the Bataan Death March to one who worked on building the Thai-Burma Railway. From bloody battles to harrowing conditions of poor hygiene to the threat of starvation and much more, They Say There Was a War gives a vivid impression of precisely what everyday life on all aspects of the battle front was like. Printed on high quality paper and illustrated with occasional black-and-white photographs, They Say There Was a War is an utterly invaluable primary source emphatically recommended for college and library collections.

This book is filled with the stories of men who served during WWII. The editors have effectively used the Veterans own words to show what the country was like before, during, and since WWII through the eyes of those who were there. The arc of the veterans' lives mirrors that of our history.

As "The Greatest Generation" falls to the "silent artillery of time," this book is a wonderful document for bringing them, and the era that they lived through, to life.

I Recommend that you read, "They Say There Was a War."

this is an awsome book. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but two of my uncles are in it.
WWII is one of the most interesting things I've learned about in school.

This is a combination of stories as told by the men who lived them. No heros or generals just the everyday service man who got the job done. You can relate better to stories like this becasue people like you lived it. My hat is off to those American Heros who helped to give us what we have today - Freedom.

What a treat - to finally have this treasure-trove of Tinicum Township history. As a newer resident of the township, I'm eager for this type of historical information. Photos are great, text - succinct. Great job! Great book!

Over 200 old photos with captions identifying individuals pictured and accompanied by well-research historical context. Great! Any genealogists or family historian would be thrilled to come across a book such as this covering the locale in which their forebears had resided. It serves as a model to be emulated by other local groups wanting to preserve a historical record their township's past.

This will be a great travel guide next time I explore Bucks County. What
fun to travel the back roads of Tinicum in search of places illustrated in
the book--including the airport with historic bi-planes flying!

What a great book. The pictures were just fabulous. It truly takes you back to a time when there was the real meaning of family and hard work. It was wonderful to see so much about this little town I grew up in. Buy many copies and give them to your friends and family. Here's a chance to show your kids and grandkids what life was like "back when".

I can't believe people are selling these used for more than the cost of it new. Penn State University Press has it for less than any of these used books and it is brand new. What's going on here?

The translations in this compendium are a vast storehouse of Mahayana literature. It is hard enough to find singularly gathered amounts of Mahayana scriptues in one place and this title puts them in one book readily accessable in practice and study. Mahayana has had a problem in the past of their scriptures being accessable in one place and/or translated in English. Chang grants an easily open translations which can appeal to any level of Mahayanist and Buddhist in general.

The sectioning of the scriptures into topcis such as emptiness, consciousness, pure land, etc. is an incredibly friendly and helpful approach to systemizing the scriptures by their inner topics of teaching focus. None have done this yet in translations of Mahayana.

Anyone interested in the detailed and well expounded Mahayana scriptures should have this title as their key source for you wil not find such a gathering in any current publications but this one. Another key point, many Buddhist find it difficult to find/join a local sangha but this title grants any level of Buddhist an entrance into the mystery and wonder of Buddhism when locality doesn't permit. These translations cover many of the diffcult and yet foundational philosophies, so all levels of practitioners can use this title as a key practice manual on learning about the Buddhist Path.

I highly recommend this to every level of Buddhist practitioner. I myself am a Buddhist priest of the Order of the Red Lotus and this title is one of our key practice manuals because of its depths and width of English sutras.

The 9 sutras under section II titled as Emptiness are really good. It is a "must read" for anyone interested in Mahayana. The sutras clearly indicate the pathless path. It is a valuable guide for the Mahayana meditation. Mr.Chang has done a neat translation keeping the flavour of the original theme intact. Those who are already familiar with the Mahayana "viewless view" are sure to immensly benefit from these sutras.

This is a collection of valuable Mahayana Sutras translated from the Chinese edited by Garma Chang. It is topically arranged in the contents such as Pure Land, Emptiness, On Maya, etc. There is also a helpful index and glossary that make referring to Chinese-Sanskrit words easy.

Anyone studying the field of Chinese Buddhism and Mahayanist scriptures will appreciate this book!

Garma Chang's translation of the Thousand Songs of milarepa is also a spectacular product .

- Art Gregory

Vizcaya is one of the great Gilded Age estates, build by an heir to a huge fortune, who had no family or children, so he devoted all his time and wealth to this palace on Biscayne Bay..and if you've ever layed eyes on this pile you can appreciate it was money well spent. This book is the best resourse I've seen on Viscaya; the text is scholarly and extremely well researched. The images are very well realized, and frankly in a book like this, great images are a must, because you can't imagine a place like this, unless you can actually see it, no description, no matter how articulate can do this place justice. If you have any interest in great residental architecture, or the history of south Florida or just appreciate great books, then I can't imagine you not loving this book.

In my opinion, Witold Rybczynski is the best observer of architecture writing today. Laurie Olin is in the same class as an observer of landscape architecture. The chance to read the two of them writing about this estate is an unusual treat. This is the kind of book somebody might give you and although the cover is attractive, you give a small inward sigh, knowing you will never read it. Not with this book. The writing is simply vastly better than books like this usually are. If you are at all interested in the design process either in landscape or residential architecture you will not be disappointed in this book.

And if you like this book, check out the two books I have linked to which are classics.The Perfect House: A Journey with Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio Across the Open Field: Essays Drawn from English Landscapes (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture)

This book by two architects that is the story of Vizcaya, the James Deering Estate built in the early twentieth century in Miami as the lavish and sumptuous expression of the great wealth of its tractor-manufacturer owner, is an exceptionally first-class literary production from every point of view that could have a bearing on its subject. Written in the technically precise phraseologies appropriate to architecture and interior decoration, its prose is free of and stands above the contamination that abounds in the otherwise usual debasement of modern literature, and it is illustrated with a landslide of stunningly magnificent photography in both color and black-and-white. But something else with which it is illustrated is what recommended this book to me. I am neither an architect nor an interior decorator, nor has the stuff of those callings ever engaged much of my attention, but as soon as my eye fell on the watercolors painted of Vizcaya by John Singer Sargent when he was a guest of Deering's there in 1917, while I turned the leaves of a friend's copy of the book, I knew immediately as one with a profound attachment to watercolor painting that I must own this book for myself. For although I have held perhaps a hundred Sargent watercolors in my hands in the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Boston Museums, and seen many more besides in other books, I had never before seen these, as they have lain quietly in private collections without ever being published to my knowledge until now, and they are among the finest examples of Sargent's amazing wizardry in this medium, which defies belief that a human being could have painted them. And the rest of the book is a plus even for one not particularly attracted to matters of residential design or interior décor, for it is a record of an era of refinement, gentility and taste, a belle époque in American history that is gone.

An impressive architectural achievement of the Gilded Age when country manors and their gardens were a conspicuous documentation of personal wealth and power by their owners, the Miami estate of Vizcaya was the equal to such famous contemporary structures as the Bilmore and the San Simeon. The collaborative work of Witold Rybczynski (Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism, University of Pennsylvania) and Laurie Olin (Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania), Vizcaya: An American Villa And Its Makers" is the complete story of how this magnificent building came to be constructed, landscaped, and utilized as a 180-acre estate on Biscayne Bay complete with lagoons, canals, citrus groves, a farm village, a yacht harbor, and a 40-room Baroque mansion. Enhanced with a wealth of seventy color and 96 b/w illustrations, "Vizcaya" is an informed and informative body of impeccable scholarship presenting a seminal study that is very strongly recommended as an addition to professional, academic, and community library American Architectural History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Charlotte's older brother Jim is in the services for world war two. Charlett wants to help but she doesnt know how. when she finds a old bottle cap on the street she gets her hole school to help with the metal drive. When they finally get two old classrooms full of metal it all disappears Charlotte is shure it was stolen her new friend Pete wants to get more metal to show the thief they won't stand for it. When Robbie [Charlotte's brother]breaks his hand and can't work in the mill while Charlotte helping he sees a big pile of metal across the river he gets Charlotte to help get it. But this is thair metal how did it get here? Charlotte, Robbie, and Pete stay in a boat over night for two nights before they found the thief. Who is it and why did they do it. Find out when you read Voices On Wisper Bend.

Charlotte and her brother Robbie are collecting metal for a scrap drive. The year is 1942 and the United States is fighting in World War II. Charlotte's "Ma" goes to work at a mill. Charlotte has to take care of Robbie and herself while "Ma" is at work and they have many adventures. You'll enjoy reading about what they do. I enjoyed the book because the descriptions about the War were very good.

This history mystery takes place in 1942. America has joined the fighting in World War II and the normal patterns of everyday life have been disrupted. Charlotte's brother is in the Navy, her mother is working in a local factory, and her father and his tugboat are very busy hauling freight on the Monongahela River. Charlotte has started a drive at her school to collect scrap metal. Before they can send their scrap to the local mill, however, it disappears.

This is another very good story for kids. The mystery isn't quite as compelling as some of the others in this series, but that is made up for by its depiction of the difficulties of wartime life. How much families missed sons who had gone off to fight, the anxiety felt even by the children when the "brown car" that carries notification that somebody has been killed is seen in the neighborhood, and the unfair suspicions aimed at people from different ethnic backgrounds. Young girls will also be able to identify with Charlotte, the main character, as she struggles to overcome a deep personal fear and help her younger brother at a critical moment in the story.

Girls in the 9 to 12 age group will enjoy this book and benefit from its lessons, both historical and personal, at the same time. My daughter did. Definitely recommended.

This book is very good, a lot of quality like any American Girl book. Please remember that this is not a book about one of the AG Doll characters, but a new girl. The story is easy to follow and has a very surprising ending. How Charlotte overcomes her worst fear to help her brother is a really good point. I also liked how she seemed very close to her brother fighting in WWII for the Navy and was really concerned for him. A good read for girls (or boys, too) ages 10-12. Good capturing of the time period, and the "Peek into the Past" is cool.

I truly enjoyed this book,knowing very little of the history of 105th,it lets you look into the mind of one of its leaders.I truly enjoyed seeing my great grand-father's picture and seeing our name mentioned.The story is one of love and tradegy,lets you see the sacrifice made by our forebearers.

Dr. Hogan takes the reader of this wonderful book right into the Civil War, and even deeper into the life of Col. Greenawalt. You won't want to put it down.

This is a story that will etch itself into your heart. As you read, you will come to know and understand Jacob's feelings on the war, his relationships with his fellow soldiers, and most of all, his intense love for Rebecca. The descriptions of the battles he fought in are so realistic that you'll feel you are there at his side. The pain and longing to see his wife that Jacob feels when he is dying in the army hospital is likewise just as real.

The author of this book did a great service to both the memory of Jacob Greenawalt, and to the people of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, by writing this book. Having grown up in West Newton myself, it was especially moving, but you don't have to be a Pennsylvanian "Wildcat" to appreciate this great story.

I have read more than my share of Civil War books based upon letters and diary. Most of these volumes begin when the soldier goes to war and pens his first letter home and usually ends with the last letter written either before his muster out or death. Waiting for Jacob, however begins with Jacob's letters from college four years before the war. Letters in which he proclaims his love to his "young miss" as she waits for him at home. The letters amazingly do not end with Jacob's death in 1864, but continue two years later when the nurses that cared for the dying soldier once again reaffirm his love from statements made on his death bed to the grieving widow. I found these letters quite unique and moving, they were letters that keep Rebecca "alive" for the next six decades. The author attempts in this tome, successfully I might add, to weave together different story lines. The first drawn from a "first person" account of the last years of Rebecca, his Civil War widow. This passage is drawn from an interview with an elderly lady, who as a teenage that cared for Rebecca in her last years, as she waited not for Jacob but instead for death to rejoin her martyr husband killed 61 years before. He also vividly narrates the stories told by Jacob's letters. Letters that tell not only war but also of backstabbing fellow officers, and the senseless losses both on the battlefield and of disease caused by incompetent generals. It also included is a complete roster and some personal stories of the 100 men from his hometown of West Newton, PA who he recruits and leads as a Captain. The story of their recruitment is drawn completely from local period newspapers. Most unique to me was the chapter obtained completely from state archive records when Jacob is promoted to Major over a more senior captain (The "War" with Captain Hastings). An incident that forces Jacob to resign his commission (it was rejected) and is moved to write to Rebecca his most heartfelt letter where he proclaims, "I am no Christian." It is my humble opinion that this book would be enjoyed not only by a Civil War "buff" but also one interested in a Victorian period love story. It is indeed a story that does deserve to be preserved forever

In this charming work, Edwin Hogan, captivates the reader with the tender love story set against the background of the American Civil War. Dr. Hogan's research adds depth to the story told in the letters from Jacob Greenawalt to his wife Rebecca. The story will be especially of interest to those living in Western Pennsylvania, as familiar place and family names jump off the pages and even minor characters come alive under his pen. However, the story of love, war, and longing has universal appeal. For those with a particular interest in this period of history, the book adds new details of the contributions made by the people of West Newton and the surrounding area. It is one of the finest books that I have read in quite some time.

This book by Richter which won the National Book Award in 1961 remains for me THE masterpiece of modern American literature.

Elegaic in its scope, Richter in Waters of Kronos captures the nostalgic malaise of the dwindling Eisenhower years as the American Spirit fails to come to terms with the realization that our rural Americanness of closely knit families, hidden local secrets, and apple pie abundance had been forfeited under the swelling waters of Modern Time -- those backed-up waters created by the dams of the Tennessee valley and the creation of the interstate highway system. In raising this awareness in the novella-like dreams of a man affected by the stroke of insight, Richter juxaposes the era of headless horsemen and settling pilgrims with the impersonal modern existentialism that arbitrarily guards the cemetaries of our memories.

If there is any book of American literature that should be mandatory reading, this is the one.

I am currently reading, as I get to them, the winners of the National Book Award which I haven't yet read. This book won the 1961 award and I found it an eerily moving book, which really caught me up after I read for a bit. It tells of John Donner revisiting his boyhood home, and while fantastic it has none of the things I so often find irritatin in "fantasy" books. I was powerfully affected by this great simple story.

The Waters of Kronos is a haunting novel about memory, loss, nostalgia, and the pitfalls of hope. The very premise, so promisingly delivered, bears fruit in unexpected ways: John Donner imagines that his inner unease is from the distance between him and his long dead father. In his feverish imagination he sees his father menacingly approaching his sick bed, but then realizes he was wrong. His father was not the subject of his life long fear: it was existence itself. The very physical fact of living, with its accumulated disappointments and losses, its fears and anxieties, is the real source of anxiety. And it is inescapable: neither a retreat into fantasy nor a recreation of the past into art can alleviate it. In the end, this masterfully written novella comes to grips with this unsettling fact: people must live with life as it is given.

In this haunting, often beautiful novel, Conrad Richter writes of the journey of John Donner, who goes back to the town where he was born, hoping to find the meaning of a deep malaise. If he can only return to the past, he feels he might be free. But the quest seems futile. The town he seeks lies at the bottom of a great modern dam made by the River Kronos.


How he is drawn back through the waters of Kronos, Time, into the past forms the narrative of John Donner's classic journey. He finds himself in his own clear, light-filled world of youth at a moment of double crisis in the lives of his richly varied family, the Donners, Morgans, and Scarletts. But they are still young. John Donner is an old man. When he tries to re-enter the old intimate family relationships, he is rejected as a stranger, even by the boy-he-was as they stand face to face. Only his mother, from whom he holds himself until the last, cannot fail him, he thinks. Surely she will know him and receive him into the old heretofore never failing love.

Great book well written arrived on time in new condition

I bought the book for my boyfriend, he is a Penn State alum. So far he has really enjoyed the book. It was a great purchase.

There has perhaps never been a college football coach more associated with a single university than Joe Paterno is with Penn State. Of course, it only makes sense since JoePa has been coaching at the University for over 50 years including 40 years as the team's head coach. "What it Means to be a Nittany Lion" is a player's and coach's retrospective on playing and coaching at the school. It traces Penn State's rich history of national championships and All-American players, decade-by-decade, sharing fond recollections and stories by some of their greatest players ever.

As a Michigan fan, I have always had tremendous respect for Paterno and Penn State. They do things the right way with class and integrity, just like Michigan. You never hear about scandals there like you do at so many other universities where winning is placed above everything else. Each decade presents some of its most notable players such as Rosey Grier, sharing their stories in their own words. Grier, perhaps best known as a member of the Los Angeles Rams "Fearsome Foursome" actually went to Penn State to compete in Track and Field and was an All-American Shot-putter in 1954.

It was in the 190's when Penn State started to develop its reputation as Linebacker U with players like Jack Ham, Greg Buttle, and Matt Millen but they also produced great offensive talent such as RB Lydell Mitchell. While we all see the loveable, affable, old gentlemen, it's quite evident in reading these players stories that playing for Paterno was no picnic. Former receiver O.J. McDuffie even relates going home in tears once as a freshman because the coaches had been so tough on him. McDuffie persevered and became only the second Penn State receiver to earn first team All-American status in 1992.

I especially enjoyed reading all the players talking about how they were recruited and ended up at Penn State. So many of them talk about the values and integrity that Paterno had and how academics were stressed as much, if not more than athletics. One of the most uplifting stories is that of Adam Taliaferro. Taliaferro, a defensive back, broke a vertebrae in his neck making a tackle in 2000. Doctors gave him slim chance of ever walking again, yet a year later, Adam was cheered by over a 100,000 fans as he jogged onto the field.

Whether you are a Penn State fan or not, after reading this book, you will definitely know what it means to be a Nittany Lion.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This is great book on Penn State's greatest players. Each player tells a story of what means to be a Nittany Lion. I love this book! It is for die-hard Nittany Lions fans or any college football fans! We Are...Penn State!

Though this book was written for academic purposes and shows corresponding literary telltales, it is quite accessible and has several outstanding features. The best thing about the book is that the author did not just do an academic survey--she immersed herself in the Bay Area Wiccan culture, and presents first-hand descriptions of what she discovered. Her description of public rituals in the New Reformed Order of the Golden Dawn, Reclaiming, and at least one other tradition, are informative to those who wonder but do not know what Wiccan religious rites look like. In addition, she provides insight into how and why the people she interviewed were drawn to Wicca, thus complementing the observations of visible Craft with some inward explanation.

*Must Have, Double Bag!* is old school comic fandom's term for things that a fan _cannot_ live without--and have any fanboy or fangirl cred in the eyes of her or his fan peers.

And a perfect, to-the-point description of this book.

Written by a Gardnerian and Reclaiming practitioner who also happens to be a skillful folklorist and anthropologist, Magliocco is presently an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge.

Witching Culture is thoughtful, insightful, fruitful, grounded, and, maybe, provocative.

Witching Culture is well-crafted and a joy to read.

Witching Culture is one of the best ethnographies that I've read in a long time.

Magliocco manages to accentuate the participation in her participant-observations, but sustain a vibrant and keen postmodern theoretical analysis at the same time. She takes the reader *there* to a living experience of an alternative culture.

She addresses a broad range of topics shaping and challenging Neo-Paganism,especially Craft in the San Francisco Bay Area, from how magic is envisioned as a working relationship with world and deities to ritual art and artistry to Neo-Pagan shopping habits to identity construction and cultural borrowing, and more.

Like the Neo-Pagan bricoleurs she discusses, she takes advantage of theories and insights borrowed from a number of disciplines and discourses, putting the mix to good, understanding use.

Magliocco considers Neo-Pagan culture to be oppositional to dominant culture, postmodern in its world view at a time when the dominant modern culture offers little beyond materiality, consumerism, alienation, oppression, and spiritual--
if not economic--impoverishment. She traces some roots of this oppositionality to sources in the Romantic and European nationalist movements. And provides a good account of Neo-Paganism's cultural creativity in shaping magical ritual, even
political action, from these sources, among others.

Her approach to the creative and enculturating role that song plays in today's Neo-Paganism alone makes the book worthwhile.

Witching Culture is a *Must Have, Double Bag!* book that all of us should be proud to add to our libraries.

Note: I am Sabina's friend, and the *Pitch* in the book. All I can assure you is--as an old-school comic guy--if the book sucked, I'd say so. Far from it--Witching Culture shines bright!

Sabina Magliocco's "Witching Culture" is quite possibly the most significant volume on Contemporary Pagan Culture to have been written in several years. Magliocco, author of an earlier volume on Neo-Pagan Art and Altars, has filled in several gaps left by Ronald Hutton and Sarah Pike, authors of important recent works in their own right.

The real strength of Magliocco's approach lies in her combined historical and folkloric approaches to cultural formation. Nods to other theoretical approaches are made, especially in her discussion of Paganism as a culturally oppositional discourse (James Scott, Todorov, Gramsci) but for the most part her own theoretical approaches are interwoven with her content so as to produce a seamless integration.

As I noted, her attention to the categories of the Other, both as conceived from Christian heritage and the Enlightenment's 'God of Reason,' are set up as the early framework of the book, along with valuable summations of early Hermeticism, medieval ritual magic, Renaissance Humanism, and 19th C. Romanticism to show the contributions of each era to contemporary Paganism. In this she avoids Hutton's obsession with the British 19th century and yet misses much of Hutton's focus on cunning-folk and those more vernacular traditions. Magliocco's work is more concerned with those who wrote on those traditions, and how those writings (Leland, Murray, Gardner) were used as a crucible to create contemporary Paganism.

Excellent portions of the book also focus on energy, magic, naming and ritual, as well as the historical and folkloric contributions to the formations of these much-used categories by contemporary Pagans. In addition, this is the first volume I am aware of to treat music and song in such depth. Two main aspects of song are treated--ritual uses (echoing her earlier scholarly articles on the subject with Holly Tannen) and educational uses--that is, teaching modes of thought and interpretation common to Pagans. While these are not the only important functions of Pagan song, these are the most important aspects for her work, for she concentrates on community identity and maintenance. Partly because of her concern with boundary formation and maintenance, her work engages little with New Age religiosity, and instead concentrates on flash points such as cultural appropriation issues with indigenous peoples, especially Amerindians. Again, given the existing literature, this is a plus, rather than a minus.

If there are drawbacks to her work, they are similar to other important works in the field. Most of the book concentrates on Wicca, witchcraft, Feri, Reclaiming and New Reformed Orthodox Order of the Golden Dawn (NROOGD), all closely connected with dominant structures in the Eastern part of the U.S. Other facets of contemporary Paganism, such as Druidry, Pagan Vodoun, Church of All Worlds, and Asatru/Vanatru, draw significantly less attention. But as these are numerically proportionately less of the wider community, their comparative marginalization is understandable in a study like this.

This is an excellent examination and introduction to the study of the Wicccan culture. Combining personal tales with more traditional folklore techniques and commentary she crafts a compelling exploration of many of the questions that those who are not primarily interested in belief systems per se are interested in. If you want to have insight into what Wiccans are interested in and how they relate this is the book.

If I have any criticism it is that she tends to narrow her focus to a few specific traditions. I was left wondering the changes that might be seen as the population of Wiccans changes from a tradition or coven centered to that of the more eclectic solitary population, and how are the "traditionalists" reacting to the changes.

This however is an easily overlooked concern as she covers the her topic well and with obvious relish as well as with the eye of the trained observer.

Very Well Done.

Journalist Jim Corrigan presents The 48th Pennsylvania In The Battle Of The Crater: A Regiment Of Coal Miners Who Tunneled Under The Enemy, the true story of a battle of the American Civil War. When Grant attempted to claim the Confederate railway nexus of Petersburg, Virginia, the resulting stalemate should have been broken by Union commander General Ambrose Burnside's plan to allow the 48th Pennsylvania, a regiment from the mining town of Pottsville, to tunnel under Confederate entrenchments and apply explosives. Yet bickering among the Union leadership, and superb cooperation among the Confederate leadership, led to the Union's downfall at Petersburg and cost an opportunity to bring an early end to the war. The 48th Pennsylvania In The Battle Of The Crater examines the details of this historic conflict with black-and-white photographs, a list of forces in the Battle of the Crater, a table of casualties, a list of soldiers decorated for gallantry, and a wealth of research and detailed notes supporting the meticulous accounting of details. An index rounds out this scholarly and welcome addition to Civil War and military history shelves.

The 48th Pennsylvania in the Battle of the Crater is an interesting, engaging and well-written book. Author Jim Corrigan tells the story in a clear and easy to understand manner. I didn't know much about the Battle of the Crater when I started the book, but my interest never waned. Corrigan keeps you turning the pages with a well-paced style. I enjoyed the background he provided about the major characters, his "big picture" view of the battle, and his presentation of the controversies related to the battle. Additionally, his maps are well done and a valuable aid to readers, particularly those who may not be familiar with the Battle of the Crater. I believe this book will appeal to Civil War aficionados as well as those with a casual interest in this time period. I highly recommend it.

Students of the American Civil War are well aware that General Ulysses Grant called the battle of the Crater the "saddest affair" he had witnessed during the war. On that July day in 1864, Union hopes for a breakthrough at Petersburg dissipated with a bungled and tragic attack on the Confederate lines that had been torn apart with the explosion of some 8,000 pounds of explosives. The battle was the culmination of one of, if not the, most daring and remarkable exploits of the war's eastern theatre: the tunneling under the Confederate lines by a regiment of Pennsylvania troops recruited from Schuylkill County and composed largely of coal miners.
With the 48th Pennsylvania in the Battle of Crater, author Jim Corrigan paints a thoroughly engaging and very fair portrait of the events that led up to the battle and the battle itself. The work is well-balanced in portraying both the Union and Confederate side. Corrigan has done a great job in telling of the remarkable feat performed by the 48th PA in the face of great disadvantage and has made sense of all the complicated military, social, and political factors that occured both before and during the battle.
I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn more about the war in the East and about the 48th Pennsylvania Regiment. This book is an excellent work of history told in a clear and easily understandable manner, despite the many complexities involved in the tunneling and in the battle. Very well-done.