PA Books: “Bullets and Bandages” with James Gindlesperger

At Gettysburg, PA, during three days of July 1863, 160,000 men fought one of the most fierce and storied battles of the US Civil War. Nearly one in three of those men ended up a casualty of that battle, and when the two armies departed a few days later, 21,000 wounded remained. This book is […]

PA Books: “Hell with the Lid Off” with Ed Gruver and Jim Campbell

“Hell with the Lid Off” looks at the ferocious five-year war waged by Pittsburgh and Oakland for NFL supremacy during the turbulent seventies. The roots of their rivalry dated back to the 1972 playoff game in Pittsburgh that ended with the “Immaculate Reception,” Franco Harris’s stunning touchdown that led the Steelers to a win over the […]

PA Books: “Emotional Brandywine” with Karl Kuerner & Bruce Mowday

The September 11, 1777, battle of Brandywine, a defeat for General George Washington, is too often forgotten by historians. Brandywine was one of the most important engagements of the war, also the largest land battle. Lafayette began his rise to an American hero that afternoon when he shed his blood for American freedom. Artist Karl […]

PA Books: “Youghiogheny: Appalachian River” with Tim Palmer

Turbulent rapids and wild shorelines of the Youghiogheny River highlight natural wonders of the Appalachian Mountains, and midway on the stream’s revealing path, Ohiopyle State Park is a showcase of beauty and has become a recreational hotspot where the river thunders over its iconic falls and cascades through the wooded gorges of Pennsylvania. With deep […]

PA Books: “Feeding Washington’s Army” with Ricardo Herrera

In this major new history of the Continental Army’s Grand Forage of 1778, award-winning military historian Ricardo A. Herrera uncovers what daily life was like for soldiers during the darkest and coldest days of the American Revolution: the Valley Forge winter. Here, the army launched its largest and riskiest operation—not a bloody battle against British […]

PA Books: “Murder & Mayhem in Erie, PA” with Justin Dombrowski (2022)

From the French and Indian War to Oliver Hazard Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie, the city of Erie has a prideful place in the American story, but there also exists a seedy history of crime and murder. In 1905 Detective James “Jimmie” Higgins was mysteriously killed at Central High School and the drawn-out […]

PA Books: “Street Diplomacy” with Elliott Drago (2023)

As the most southern of northern cities in a state that bordered three slave states, antebellum Philadelphia maintained a long tradition of both abolitionism and fugitive slave activity. Although Philadelphia’s Black community lived in a free city in a free state, they faced constant threats to their personal safety and freedom. Enslavers, kidnappers, and slave […]

PA Books: “The Philadelphia Campaign, 1777” with Michael Harris

The British Army in North America conducted two campaigns in 1777. John Burgoyne led one army south from Canada to seize control of the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor resulting in the battle of Saratoga. Burgoyne’s defeat led to that army’s capture. Rather than assist Burgoyne’s campaign, William Howe led his army from New York City […]

PA Books: “Prisoners of Congress” with Norman Donoghue

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men—seventeen of whom were Quakers—into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for […]