Pennsylvania Books

This is a very nicely done portrait of early Quakerism. The characters are lovingly brought back to life as the book depicts the world of the early Quakers.

The book may be seen as controversial, as it seems sometimes to portray George Fox in a less than admirable light. However, it is careful not to lower itself to character assassination, and instead paints Fox (who some authors find hard to criticise) as an altogether human character.

My biggest problem with the book is that it seems to somewhat gloss over the specifics of James Naylor's rift with Fox, but perhaps this is because there are many other books which cover this aspect. However, I did find this to be a strange omission in an otherwise flawless study of the charismatic Quaker movement.

My final criticism is that this book ends too soon. I would have liked to read more about the Quaker movement in the final years of the 17th century, and how the movement came to terms with the state that had for so long repressed it. I guess I must hope for a sequel.

Despite the minor criticisms outlined above, I still highly recommend this book.

A thoughtfully detailed and entertaining narrative with lots of captivating photos of the key people and places of Lincoln's visits to the Commonwealth. I also liked the appendix which provided guidance on how to follow and experience the Lincoln Trail. I'm not a Lincoln expert, so the accounts of his experiences here were new to me and fascinating to read... but that also means my rating is just a reflection of how much I liked this book, not a comparison to other books about Mr. Lincoln. It is unquestionably well-written.

Ruth Pennel and Winnifred Merril are two girls living in Revolutionary War Pennsylvania. They are both Patriots. Ruth overhears a British soldier and is able to help the Patriot army. I highly reccomend the whole Little Maid series.

Being a smaller book, I was skeptical that I would learn so much! I had been to Little Round Top on more than 15 occasions before and when I took this book to Little Round Top, I understood things about the hill and the battle there like never before. Maps and lots of photographs make the tour easy to follow for first timers and veterans of the Gettysburg Battlefield. The section where the author challenges the reader to locate the positions of certain photographs is an interesting twist. Just like his Devil's Den book, I highly recommend this work.

Reviewed in Journal of Financial Service Professionals - 01/01/2000:

Individuals serious about understanding the personal, corporate, and societal impacts of the shift toward defined contribution pensions should read Olivia Mitchell and Sylvester Schieber's Living with Defined Contribution Pensions: Remaking Responsibility for Retirement. The book is a compilation of the work of today's premier researchers on pensions. ...The articles in each part provide insight into many of the major issues ... along with a wealth of current data in support of the analysis. Examples include but are not limited to questions such as the following: What factors influence employees to contribute to plans? How financially literate are employees? Why do some employees spend, rather than roll over defined contribution pension amounts when they change jobs? What are the trends in defined contribution pension services? What policy options would spur more savings by employees? What is the future of the defined contribution revolution?

The book's major strength is its superb integration of corporate and personal financial planning, pension, and political issues. Understanding pension behaviors and trends requires a multidisciplinary approach. One particularly distinctive contribution of Mitchell and Schieber's editorial work is that the corporate issues have not been relegated to the background. Employer incentives are relevant to pension trends; to ignore business issues is to have a very incomplete picture. The articles in this book give the necessary attention to the nexus of corporate issues surrounding the core trend toward a shift to defined contribution plans both in the United States and abroad.

Don't expect to digest one of these articles in five minutes. This book is full of thought provoking, rigorous work aimed at those individuals with some background in economics and statistics. ...The incentives and policy implications are complex, and the analysis and discussion in this book reflect this challenge. But for those seriously interested in providing pension services, advising others about pensions, or understanding the trends for their own retirement needs, taking the time to read and comprehend the issues in Living with Defined Contributions Pensions: Remaking Responsibility for Retirement is definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

I recently moved to Philly last year to go to school at Penn, and I just picked up this guide on a whim. Boy am I glad I did! The reviews of the places I already knew were spot on, but more importantly, it tipped me off to some great places I had no idea existed. I found the reviews honest, concise, candid and often tremdously funny. And they thankfully suceeded to help me find a decent hotel for my mother to stay in when she came to visit. You can't bet that, nor can you beat the restaurant recommendations, which don't pull any punches.

One nice thing about the guide -- one of the things I noticed when I was trying to figure out which guide to Philly to buy, is that this Lonely Planet book covers neighborhoods like South Philly, Manayunk and Northern Liberites clearly, in detail, and with maps. As far as I could tell, no other guide to Philadelphia does this. Instead, they mostly deal with Center City. So if you want something that thoroughly covers the city, this is it.

Some of the best photos ever reproduced of existing originals. For an historian, reinactor, or gun builder, this is a "must have" book

Aside from the fact that this is an page-turner, the reader has the opportunity to experience how a crime is solved from an author who has actually done it. Things don't magically happen - the reader is led through the process, including the blind alleys. I found it fascinating to find out how white collar fraud actually occurs. Jason Holmes is not larger than life; the reader can identify with him. I felt like I was solving the crime right along with him.

I also liked getting into the mind of the criminal. Although I found it very disturbing, this criminal was developed better than in many of the other detective novels I have read. You can see where Bartow has had experience in profiling the criminal mind.

While I won't give away the ending, it is extraordinarily satisfying. It makes you think about the adequacy of our justice system. Whether you like it or you don't, Pale Horse will surely get you thinking!

Somehow, despite a realistic story about hard-bitten people, this first novel is also sweet, moving, and not depressing. Maybe it's because the characters, despite their faults, have character. It's on a par with the best novels about life in the United States (in this case a small town in Pennsylvania) that I've ever read. It passes an ultimate test: I'd readily lend it to anyone. My father liked it, too.

This is another of Wennawoods Publishing's "Great Pennsylvania Frontier" series. Originally published in a two volume set in 1808 and 1811, this collection of Indian captivity narratives written by Archibald Loudon was one of the most popular and widely read of all the many books on this subject that would appear over the next 100 years. In fact, it was so popular that it has become a rarity to find a complete copy of the original 19th century editions. Wennawoods reprinted the 1888 edition as seen here to bring these rare and fascinating captivity narratives to a modern audience.

This work is replete with tales of white settlers and soliders who were captured by Indians during the late 18th and early 19th centuries on the trans-Allegheny frontier. Among the more than 25 accounts included here is that of the famous Col. James Smith and his more than 5 years captivity with the Wyandots in northeastern Ohio. This work also includes extensive accounts of Indian life, religion, foodways, hunting, warfare, and, of course, torture. It is understandable how this book became so popular, as it was written at a time when the danger from Indian raids along the frontier was still a viable threat, and it is easy to picture frontier families huddled together on a cold winter night around the fireplace, reading of tales of Indian depredations and scaping and torture, all the while listening for the faint echoes of the war whoop in the dark woods nearby.