Pennsylvania Books

Growing up around the three rivers I was not aware of how much of Americas history flowed past their banks. This book helped to illuminate such moments. The pictures and the captions bring life to an era where steel was king and the rivers its mistress. You will not be disappointed. Buy it!

Not only do the images in this book portray an important city's life, growth and development along its three rivers, but the captions are replete with fascinating facts (and some surprises) about the region. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in Pittsburgh's history.

This book, only the third written about aviation in Pennsylvania, is a splendid coffe table history. Contained in it are many pages and illustrations concerning the All American Aviation air-mail pick up routes from 1939-1949, numerous news clippings concerning the history of early aviation in Pennsylvania, form C.P. Mayer's commercial airfield in Bridgeville, to Cliff Ball's Bettis Field. There is also a chapter, together with photos, about the founding of the OX-5 Club, now an international organization, at Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in 1956. Featured in the books are Charles Carroll, Raymond Elder, Carl Strickler, Lou Strickler, Russ Brinkley, Lloyd Santmeyer, Elmer Ashbaugh, Clyde Hauger, and other prominent pioneers of aviation.

This is a great coffee table book for all of those interested in the history of flight or the history or Western Pennsylvania. I helped to transcribe a lot of the tapes of interviews for this book and these guys love to tell stories about their early days in the airfields.

Frank McKetta, a former Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Commissioner,writes of the department he once headed. While much of the book relates past events in which the author does not have direct knowledge or participation, it is fascinating to read an expose researched and written by the person who was at the top of the organization. It is clear Colonel McKeeta deeply cares about the proper roles police should have.
Colonel McKetta is especially critical of local police departments throughout Pennsylvania history. He notes that local politicians determine police budgets, hire Police Chiefs, and decide which laws should be enacted and guide the degree to which existing laws should be enforced. What results are highly politicized police forces that are sharply influenced by local leaders. Unfortunately, criminals have learned to become forces within local politics and then guide police investigations and enforcement away from areas they don't want the police to notice.
Decades ago, it was official state policy that PSP officers could not investigate local crimes. Thus, gamblers and racketeers operated in parts of Pennsylvania with the local police in their pockets and without fearing the PSP. In the 1960s, Reading, Penna. hosted the largest gambling operation east of Las Vegas, according to the author. The PSP had its own problems, as Colonel McKetta claims several people achieved leading PSP positions with sponsorships from politicans with organized crime connections.
The author describes his efforts to clean up the PSP. By informing state legislators of his efforts, they turned deaf ears to politicans who argued for continuing to keep the PSP out of investigations in their political areas. The PSP thus was able to make significant progress in destroying racketeering operations, according to the author. This book provides great descriptions into how these changes were achieved. Students of state and local politics and of Pennsylvania history should find this book exceptionally useful.

After 25 years in law enforcement I know whereof Col. McKetta speaks in his book. The general public is woefully unaware of what goes on in the political sphere regarding police and the exposures by Col. McKetta of past history in this area as well as more recent situations, personal and public media facts, is something to ponder for anywone interested in such matters. I was especially intrigued by his personal story about the gambling and racketeering involvement of the Allegheny County District Attorney and his attempt to use politics to quash State Police efforts in that area. The more recent questions that McKetta brought up about recent Governors in their relation to the police situtation suggests that perehaps the solutions he offers at the end of his book should be recognized as being feasible to correct a serious problem.

As an environmental history, this book rates five stars because the author so skillfully and comprehensively weaves together the many different threads that form the actual experience of environmental protection. At the most basic level, the book is a history of pollution in Philadelphia, a surprisingly good choice since it was an important colonial city, a major manufacturing center during the industrial revolution, and a typical troubled post-industrial metropolis of the 20th century. At the same time the book is a history of environmental management and ecomomics. And it discusses the trajectories of pollution-control technologies and the politics of pollution as well. Able to quote authoritatively from environmental regulations and quantitative risk assessments in one chapter, and from philosophers like Isiah Berlin and Lewis Mumford in others, the author provides readers with as detailed, comprehensive, and engaging a story as one can find in the literature on environmental history.

Dr. Raufer introduces the reader to the multifaceted environmental history of one of America's most unique urban environments. From the early privies to modern waste facilities, Raufer chronicles the city's solutions to problems and the problems that resulted. Following the history is an in-depth and informative section on current environmental regulations and how they came about. I highly recommend this for anybody interested in environmental issues or even Philadelphia history. I actually found the book hard to put down at times.

Pittsburgh.It is a marvelous city that I visited back in 2004 for New Year's Eve. I enjoyed my time watching the city from the hills. I decided to purchase this book just to remember Pittsburgh by. I am glad I did. Wonderful pictures and a brief history of what made this city the great city it is! If you are a Pittsburgh resident or have visited it in the past then I recommend this book. Thanks for the memories Pittsburgh!!

This is a fantastic book with high quality photographs. Anyone who has been to Pittsburgh recently is at least impressed and some like me fall in love with the great city of Pittsburgh. This book explains why. Those who have never been to Pittsburgh are always surprised when I say it is my favorite urban city in the U.S., those who have been to Pittsburgh are never surprised. This is the only book about Pittsburgh of this scale. It covers almost every building and every major business like no other book has attempted to do.

The quality of the photographs is outstanding work by Thomas Bell who has photographed Pittsburgh for many years and is a Pittsburgh native. The size of the photographs is very pleasing too. He certainly succeeds in capturing the beauty, mystique and soul of this marvelous city.

I lived in Pittsburgh for a number of years. This is a city that has inspired me to be a better person, to always aim for what's best, not what's average. This book brings to life the beauty and glory of this American city from people to architecture to businesses and landmarks that make this city unique.

This was a great book. Besides all else mentioned already,it reads like a story. No theoretical arabesques, just nitty gritty factual details so you can see connectednesses for yourself. Baltzell's very factual illustrations of idealisms' realities and human tensions towards cultishness versus civic participation serve as a useful lense and compass to me ever since reading this book. I recommend it whenever I can, particularly to someone who, like me, may at one time, be shocked by a human experience or contrast and want to ask why. I'd recommend it to any one ever involved in a cult. Its readability is comforting and enthralling, and it is deeply seated in a sense of the continuity of history and human nature. I found it a healing book. I'm sorry Mr. Baltzell is no longer alive so I can thank him. Read every crumb of this book. Its thick, but allot the time.

Digby Baltzell uses the history of Philadelphia and Boston as very real examples of two types of leadership. In Boston, the "Boston Brahmin" elites formed a strong upper class that was not tolerant, certainly, but took responsibility for community life and exercised a tremendous influence on American culture, politics, arts, and science. In Philadelphia, the "Proper Philadelphians" were charming, tolerant--and deeply irresponsible, abandoning any role in governing the city and making it by common agreement the worst run city in the United States. When Philadelphia needed a mover and shaker, it imported some one from outside, like Ben Franklin.

Baltzell takes these difference back to the colonial period and the dramatic differences in the viewpoints of the Puritans who founded Boston and the Quakers who founded Philadelphia. He also sees these changes working forward as the old upper-class socialize immigrant elites into their respective patterns, producing the Kennedy clan out of Boston, and Grace Kelly out of Philadelphia. Many of the points here can also be seen in David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed.

Baltzell's bedrock conviction is that every society needs an upper class and is going to get one whether it likes it or not (the history of revolutions proves this rather conclusively). Those who see the very fact of social stratification as an personal affront will of course get affronted. The interesting point he makes though is that many things anti-elitists think are opposites actually go together. As he shows from his examples, social tolerance goes together with a much more blatantly money-conscious and just plain richer upper-class, and societies with widespread hostility to "elites" also show deep cynicism about their leadership and society in general, a cynicism merited by the generally short-sighted and narrowly (as opposed to broadly) selfish behavior of the upper class.

Does this sound familiar? Baltzell's final point is that in the wake of the sixties, which he compares to the English civil war (1640-1660) environment that spawned the Quakers and released "a host of self-righteous seekers" on the land," American leadership has moved much closer to the nakedly plutocratic and irresponsible leadership model found in Philadelphia. And along with this change in the upper class has grown egalitarianism, openness to immigrants, cynicism, leadership gridlock, and social tolerance. The irony of communal utopianism producing results exactly opposite of what was intended would not have surprised de Tocqueville, Baltzell's great mentor in sociology.

Don't think that this book is just about grand theory--it is filled with a host of fascinating portratits of the two cities' upper classes, and so contains a good deal of the achievers of America from colonial days to World War II. The simple quantitative analysis is effective and not off-putting.

This is the best non fiction book ever written. This describes the practice of traditional Amish- no school, no cars, no computers, no blowdryers, no electricity no TVs. Canned food, what do you think that is? The Amish are not a joke- they have multi million dollar farms. A branch of them sold out and started marketing it at African Americans. It was founded in the 1800s by Jacob Amman. The use of narcotics is pretty much encouraged. It says that when you want something you want it right here right now. I was wondering why my grandpa and other people in town rode a scooter well they're. The dune buggy was supposed to represent the intellectually childlike. College is taboo and they quit school after 8th grade, seldom attending public school. They are on social security, don't join the military and have no technology. The car is going to date them really bad it was invented in the 1920s and the phone invented in 1873. THis is a philosophy and religion I could relate to 100 percent. Most farmers are Amish. I loved it.

Our private guide n the Amish country recommended this book - and I read it after returning home to New York. Prof. Kraybill really tied all the threads for me - how the Amish choose to live the way they do, what are the pleasures and limitations of their society, how it maintains and governs itself. A short book written in an sophisticated but absolutely lucid, clear, and interesting language. Thank you!

This book contains more photographs of antique quilts than any other book pertaining to the various quilt documentation projects, with just the right amount of text. WELL DONE in every way!

This is a beautiful book with wonderful pictures and text. It is "one of the best" new books on the market. The pictures show lovely old quilts--some are old patterns that a person will recognize and some a fascinating combination that will be new to most quilters. Definitely a book worth owning!

Great book about true faith, not just going to church, going through the motions but real, lived faith that changes who a person is and the people around them....awesome book, quick read but powerful.

The true-life story of the "Dairyman's Daughter" (who lived during the early 1800's) will forever impact your life! The daughter was once a woman of the world, but the Lord opened her eyes to her sinful nature and purified her heart. She was a shining example of Christ to all those who were around her. I would recommend this book to anyone who desires a deeper love in Jesus Christ!

Compiled and edited by museum administrator Marcia Mason, Remember The Distance That Divides Us: The Family Letters Of Philadelphia Quaker Abolitionist And Michigan Pioneer Elizabeth Margaret Chandler 1830-1842 is the true story of a middle-class woman who left behind privelege in her early 20's to head into the wilderness of Michigan Territory with her brother and aunt. She became an enthusiastic abolitionist and activist for four years, until her unfortunate death four years later. Her literate and inspirational correspondence, most of which was written to family members during her years in Michigan, has been straightforwardly transcribed and presented, along with a smattering of letters from other family members concerning her life. Her tireless contribution to the abolitionist cause as well as her remarkable contributions has caused her to be viewed as a precursor to the more well-known Grimke sisters. A first-hand glimpse into a fascinating pioneer life.

Numerous letters to and from Elizabeth Margaret Chandler not only provide incomparable knowledge about the early days of the abolitionist movement, but also American Midwestern society of the time. One of the appendices is a list of the household effects relating to Chandler. But the book is of interest mostly for the sympathies and activities of the young Elizabeth Chandler regarding the issue of abolition. She died in 1834 before she was 30. The letters are written in the now-archaic language used by the Quakers of the time--e. g., "I thank thee my dear Elizabeth for thy large sheet or sheets so well filled for I believe there are several of thy letters yet unanswered by me...," from a lengthy letter by Chandler's aunt to her. The length of many of the letters, which go on for three or more pages, imparts to an exceptional degree the thoughts and activities of the individuals as well as their relationships with others. In her short life spent mostly in Michigan, Chandler contributed much to raising the consciousness of the region about the issue of abolition. The founder of the Logan Female Antislavery Society, she is also seen as an early activist in the fledgling women's movement. When she died, some individuals were moved to write poems about her. These are included in another appendix. The voluminous and varied materials brought together with editor Mason's deft sense of organization and worthiness is not only an invaluable source book on the little-known but influential Chadler; but it is a rich picture of individuals and their involvement in a major social issue of the time as well as their ordinary, daily activities and concerns. From the length and depth of the letters of Chandler and others she communicated with, the reader becomes involved with them as if they were subjects of a biography or characters in a historical novel.