PA Books: “Moravian Soundscapes” with Sarah Justina Eyerly

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 […]

PA Books: “Salut!: France Meets Philadelphia” with Lynn Miller & Therese Dolan

One highly visible example of French influence on the city of Philadelphia is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, modeled on the Champs-Élysées. In “Salut!”, Lynn Miller and Therese Dolan trace the fruitful, three-centuries-long relationship between the City of Brotherly Love and France. This detailed volume illustrates the effect of Huguenots settling in Philadelphia and 18-year-old William […]

PA Books: “Back from Battle” with Jim Remsen

In the final year of the American Civil War, a special Union Army post was constructed just outside Philadelphia to handle a jumble of returning citizen-soldiers. Many soldiers bore bullet wounds, broken bones, and other scars of combat. Some had lost limbs. Some were laid low by illness. Hundreds arrived half-dead as survivors of wretched […]

PA Books: “The Chiefs Now in This City” with Colin Calloway

During the years of the Early Republic, prominent Native leaders regularly traveled to American cities–Albany, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Quebec, New York, and New Orleans–primarily on diplomatic or trade business, but also from curiosity and adventurousness. They were frequently referred to as “the Chiefs now in this city” during their visits, which were sometimes for […]

PA Books: “Never I Shall Forget These Human People” with Roger Rank

From September 1944 to February 1946, the Reading Army Air Field outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, maintained a camp for German prisoners of war, who served as workers at the air base and on the farms around Berks County. Several of the POW’s were assigned to the base Paint Shop, which was managed by a civilian […]

PA Books: “Frederick Watts and the Founding of Penn State” with Roger Williams

Frederick Watts came to prominence during the nineteenth century as a lawyer and a railroad company president, but his true interests lay in agricultural improvement and in raising the economic, social, and political standing of Pennsylvania’s farmers. After being elected founding president of The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society in 1851, he used his position to […]

PA Books: “Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public” with Bernadette Lear

“Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public” charts the history of public libraries and librarianship in Pennsylvania. Based on archival research at more than fifty libraries and historical societies, it describes a long progression from private, subscription-based associations to publicly funded institutions, highlighting the dramatic period during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries […]

PA Books: “Biddle, Jackson, and a Nation in Turmoil” with Cordelia Biddle

The first half of the 19th century was an era of upheaval. The United States nearly lost the War of 1812. Partisanship became endemic during violent clashes regarding States’ Rights and the abolition of slavery. The battle between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle over the Second Bank of the United States epitomized a nation in […]

PA Books: “Armistead and Hancock” with Tom McMillan

In a war of brother versus brother, theirs has become the most famous broken friendship: Union general Winfield Scott Hancock and Confederate general Lewis Armistead. Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels (1974) and the movie Gettysburg (1993), based on the novel, presented a close friendship sundered by war, but history reveals something different from the legend […]

PA Books: “Harrisburg in World War II” with Rodney Ross

As the nation entered into the throes of World War II, Harrisburg was prepared to answer the call of service. Prideful as a “beehive of industry,” the city was a hub for wartime manufacturing, railroads and distribution. Bond drives attracted celebrities such as Abbott and Costello as locals enjoyed “Coffee MacArthur” and “Doughnuts Doolittle” for […]