Over the years, many top historians have cited Major General Robert E. Rodes as the best division commander in Robert E. Lee’s vaunted army. Despite those accolades, Rodes faltered badly at Gettysburg, which stands as the only major blemish on his otherwise sterling record. Although his subordinates were guilty of significant blunders, Rodes shared the […]
PA Books: “The Lion of Round Top” with Hans Meyers
Citizen-soldier Strong Vincent was many things: Harvard graduate, lawyer, political speaker, descendent of pilgrims and religious refugees, husband, father, brother. But his greatest contribution to history is as the savior of the Federal left on the second day at Gettysburg, when he and his men held Little Round Top against overwhelming Confederate numbers. Forgotten by […]
PA Books: “Threshold to Valley Forge” with Sheilah Vance (2025)
From December 12–19, 1777, Washington’s Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Known as the Threshold to Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment is often forgotten or minimized, falling as it did between the more famous military engagements of the Philadelphia Campaign and the well-known experience of the […]
PA Books: “Kaufmann’s” with Marylynne Pitz and Laura Malt Schneiderman (2022)
In 1868, Jacob Kaufmann, the nineteen-year-old son of a German farmer, stepped off a ship onto the shores of New York. His brother Isaac soon followed, and together they joined an immigrant community of German Jews selling sewing items to the coal miners and mill workers of western Pennsylvania. After opening merchant tailor shops in […]
PA Books: “Pirates & Privateers from Long Island Sound to Delaware Bay” with Jamie Goodall
Illicit commerce was key to the survival of the mid-Atlantic colonies from the Golden Age of Piracy to the battles of the American Revolution. Out of this exciting time came beloved villains like Captain William Kidd and Black Sam Bellamy, as well as inspiring locals like Captain Shelley and James Forten. From the shores of […]
PA Books: “Beethoven in Beijing” with Jennifer Lin (2022)
In 1973, Western music was banned in the People’s Republic of China. But in a remarkable breakthrough cultural exchange, the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted a tour of closed-off China, becoming the first American orchestra to visit the communist nation. Jennifer Lin’s “Beethoven in Beijing: Stories from the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Historic Journey to China” provides a fabulous […]
PA Books: “That Our Daughters May Be as Cornerstones” with Chad Leinaweaver (2024)
With the passage of time, do most current residents of Mechanicsburg, Pa. even know its borough once had college? And that it was only for women? Beyond a State of Pennsylvania marker denoting Irving College as the first college to offer degrees in the arts and sciences to women and that two of its building […]
PA Books: “A Killer at the Door” with Bruce Mowday
In summer 2023, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was shaken by the daring escape of convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante. Using a “crab-walking” method, Cavalcante scaled a prison wall, sparking a gripping two-week manhunt. He traversed forests, farmlands, and neighborhoods, evading law enforcement and causing schools to close, businesses to shutter, and streets to empty. The pursuit showcased […]
PA Books: “Boxed out of the NBA” with Syl Sobel & Jay Rosenstein (2022)
The Eastern Professional Basketball League (1946-78) was fast and physical, often played in tiny, smoke-filled gyms across the northeast and featuring the best players who just couldn’t make the NBA—many because of unofficial quotas on Black players, some because of scandals, and others because they weren’t quite good enough in the years when the NBA […]
PA Books: “Moravian Soundscapes” with Sarah Justina Eyerly (2021)
In “Moravian Soundscapes,” Sarah Eyerly contends that the study of sound is integral to understanding the interactions between German Moravian missionaries and Native communities in early Pennsylvania. In the mid-18th century, when the frontier between settler and Native communities was a shifting spatial and cultural borderland, sound mattered. People listened carefully to each other and […]
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