Pennsylvania Books

Everyone entering or thinking of entering the teaching field, should read this book. Ms. Bartoli gives the reader the "how to" succeed in urban schools and how to make a difference. Her passion for providing quality and equally in education for everyone is evident throughout this book.

This is a big, fact-filled book which was commisioned by the PRR to commemorate their centennial. The text recounts the growth and development of the Pennsylvania Railroad in great detail up to its publication date of 1948. It contains useful maps and information about finances, engineering projects, etc. The index is adequate. In short, this is a reference work, and not a "railfan" book. Treat it as such and you'll find it to be most useful.

The drama and personalities of the battle for labor rights against Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick and the Pinkertons and the state militia are throughly covered in this extensive volume. Dr. Krooth also explores the implications for labor and U.S. industry itself contained in this struggle and eventual defeat for the largest union of its time. Union problems are discussed: elitism, overconfidence, inaction; and the overwhelming power of the owners to act supporting by a private army, then the militia, and then court harassment of unionists. The hollowness of the temporary victory of very rich men is analyzed, and its long shadow, reaching to our time, well depicted. The book spells out developments in the 20th century seen in embryo at Homestead and has full documnetation a rich collection of primary quotation. A film script based on this volume is underway by the author, as well. (review by Morris Edelson, Ph.D.)

The most comprehensive book I've seen for describing and explaining the whys, wherefores, and hows of the geology, chemistry and practical studio concerns of clay. As it is set up as a textbook, it would be great for college or university students who want to be sure they really know their ceramic science inside and out. It is readable and had many illustrations. One of the most interesting aspects for me is the repeated reference to the artist's reverse re-creation of the natural geologic process which form the clay. The chemistry all works in reverse as we form and fire our work. I think that's sort of romantic!

Thanks for looking! Hope Adelida and Rueben steal your hearts. I love hearing from my readers. Contact me at ccbrown@academicplanet.com
Happy Reading, Carolyn Brown

Speel meticulously explains how the South is a kind of poison apple of American politics. After the Civil War the Democrats won the South but lost most of the Presidential elctions. Now it turns out that the Republicans own the South but are having difficulty winning Presidential elections. A splendid insight! This book is a place to being understanding American politics.

Charles Sheeler in Doylestown: American Modernism and the Pennsylvania Tradition investigates one artist's lifelong engagement with the rich, distinctive traditions of rural Buck's County. It charts Sheeler's discovery of the region's architechture and artifacts beginning about 1910, when he and fellow artist Morton Livingston Schamberg rented an eighteenth-century farmhouse in Doylestown. It assesses what impact this seminal event had on Sheeler's early career, and how his cyclical return to Bucks County themes in later life reveals poignant attachments and emotional depths not usually ascribed to this twentieth-century painter and photographer - known primarily as an iconographer of the machine. By analyzing Sheeler's core attachment to the preindustrial vernacular, this exhibition and its catalovue reconstruct his attempt to reconcile part and present in a series of powerful complex pictures that resulted from his enduring fascination with the Pennsylvanian tradition.
--- excerpt from book's Preface

There are many wonderful facets to this story about a young boy who joins his family for an annual reenactment of the battle at Gettysburg. A pictoral essay provides an authentic look at the preparation and event providing an excellent forum for discussion among readers. The story, however, told from the perspective of this proud, young boy, shares a spirit of patriotism and historical empathy this is often difficult to relay to children as well as adults. Charley's experiences interpreting history as a reenactor emphasize the power of experiential learning. Every Social Studies teacher should read, learn from and share this beautiful story with students making note of the many history teachers in our students' lives -- parents, siblings, community members, museums and organizations!

This slender casebook of an academic search represents the first authoritative text of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper since it was originally published in 1892. It includes book reviews and excerpts of literary and social commentaries that reflect the story's critical reception; it publishes lists of editorial emendations and variants of the story in important editions since 1892 and it gives a listing of textual sources for more than one hundred reprintings of the story in anthologies and textbooks.

The enterprise, itself, deserves recognition for its prodigious and painstaking scholarship and meticulous editing. A product of an undergraduate course on scholarly editing, Julie Bates Dock gave her class a "simple collation exercise" on Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper. Students and teacher alike became more and more enthused as they searched for relationships among various editions of the story. This enthusiasm resulted in a collaborative publication by Julie Bates Dock and three of her students.

In a chapter entitled The Legend of The Yellow Wall-Paper, Dock not only recounts how the story has become one of literature's perennial bestsellers, but also warn us that "in its twenty-five-year odyssey of rediscovery by literary critics...the story has picked up along the way an assortment of blemishes and distortions, from textual anomalies to skewed accounts of its publication history to misinformation about its contemporary reception." This should be enough to make any academic want to research its history.

The evidence of casual distortions that change the import of original texts as shown in the present case emphasizes the importance of textual criticism and traditional modes of criticism. Dock says, "...the use of documents is affected by critical trends and by critics' biases and expectations...The feminist critics of the early 1970s, intent on establishing women authors in the American literary canon, had a stake in portraying the story as a victimized piece of literature. The notion that Gilman suffered condemnation from editors and readers outside the story tidily echoed the narrator's victimization within the story." Dock then goes on to cite two examples where major feminist critics came to unexamined and hasty conclusions about the publication of the story.

Dock also provides evidence to argue that omission of a few words distorts Gilman's focus. For example, the words, "in marriage," in the sentence, "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that (in marriage)." Gilman was against the institution of marriage, but not necessarily against men in general!

Legends that Gilman had to struggle to get her story published, that most readers thought of it as a "ghost story," that it received an especially distasteful reception from the male medical community are also put to rest, as evidence simply does not support these beliefs.

Dock also points out discrepancies in Gioman's own accounts as well, such as her inaccurate and varying dates and titles as well as her claim that Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, her own physician, altered his treatment of neurasthenia after reading The Yellow Wall-Paper. This is, as Dock points out, a case of "he says/she says conundrums."

The book is wonderfully embellished with photographs of Charlotte Perkins Stetson, W.D. Howells, Horace E. Scudder and Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, as well as with other visuals.

The book also cites interesting excerpts from Gilman's autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Correspondence. It explains or compiles painstaking commentaries on textual matters, selection of copy, publication history, authorial practice and preference, editorial emendations and many other publication matters as well as reviews of the story which appeared in various magazines. The Appendix provides a history of the printing of The Yellow Wall-Paper from 1892 until 1997.

This is a scholarly book, to be sure, but it is one that is also extremely interesting. In addition to learning the history of The Yellow Wall-Paper, we also learn much about Gilman's motivations, her aesthetics of writing and her own views on both marriage and men.

For students of conflict analysis, this book considers a number of theories without advocating a certain bias. There are so many books about Chechnya written by journalists that end up taking sides. Although it is a little dry compared to the journalists' accounts, it is very even-handed.