PA Books: Pittsburgh’s Lost Outpost

As 1753 came to a close, European empires were set on a collision course for a triangular piece of land known as the Forks of the Ohio at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. The navigable waterways were valuable to the French to complete their control of the Ohio Valley as the British […]

PA Books: “Blue-Blooded Cavalryman”

In May 1863, eighteen-year-old William Brooke Rawle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and traded a genteel, cultured life of privilege for service as a cavalry officer. Traveling from his home in Philadelphia to Virginia, he joined the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry and soon found himself in command of a company of veterans of two years’ […]

PA Books: The Foreman’s Boys

Employment prospects for many were bleak at the height of the Great Depression. For unmarried recent high school graduates, the prospect of getting a job was mostly non-existent. President Roosevelt’s New Deal plan included the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program specifically targeted to provide employment for those whose job prospects were non-existent. This seventeen to […]

“Underground Philadelphia”

Philadelphia’s relationship with the underground is as old as the city itself, dating back to when Quaker settlers resided in caves alongside the Delaware River more than three hundred years ago. The City of Brotherly Love later became a national and world leader in the delivery of water, gas, steam, and electricity during the industrial […]

“America’s Anchor”

This naval history of the Delaware Estuary spans three centuries, from the arrival of the Europeans to the end of the World War II. The author describes the shipbuilders and infrastructure, and the ships and men who sailed this surprisingly active waterway in peace and in war. From Philadelphia to the Delaware Capes, the story […]

PA Books: They Were Immigrants

“They Were Immigrants” tells the story of Samuel Davis’ grandparents who immigrated to Pennsylvania from Syria in the early 20th century and the lives they created in their new home. They started families. They worked hard. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren became teachers, judges, dentists, businessmen and businesswomen, bankers, psychologists, lawyers, doctors, and software developers. […]

PA Books: “Abolitionists of South Central Pennsylvania”

Close to the Mason-Dixon line, South Central Pennsylvania was a magnet for slave catchers and abolitionists alike. Influenced by religion and empathy, local abolitionists risked their reputations, fortunes and lives in the pursuit of what they believed was right. The sister of Benjamin Lundy, one of America’s most famous abolitionists, married into an Adams County […]

“Good War, Great Men”

“Good War, Great Men” provides first-hand accounts of more than a dozen soldiers who served together during the Great War. Their stories have been rediscovered by compiling unpublished letters and journals with historical insights to provide a compelling history of the men of the 313th Machine Gun Battalion. Endorsed by the United States World War […]

PA Books: Benjamin Franklin in London

For more than one-fifth of his life, Benjamin Franklin lived in London. He dined with prime ministers, members of parliament, even kings, as well as with Britain’s most esteemed intellectuals—including David Hume, Joseph Priestley, and Erasmus Darwin. In this fascinating history, George Goodwin gives a colorful account of Franklin’s British years. The author offers a […]

PA Books: “Insight Philadelphia”

Each of the nearly 100 essays in Insight Philadelphia tells a succinct, compelling, and little-known tale of the city’s past. Some stories are quirky, like how early gas stations were designed to resemble classical temples, or the saga of how a museum acquired a 2000-year-old Greek statue, then had it demolished with a sledgehammer. Other […]