PA Books

PA Books is a weekly program on PCN that features an hour-long conversation with authors of newly published books on topics unique to Pennsylvania. After more than 20 years on the air, the program continues to produce an extensive video collection of interviews with the experts on Pennsylvania's history and culture. PA Books has preserved key moments for Pennsylvania by focusing on significant events like the Battles of Gettysburg and the Industrial Revolution, examining the lives of Pennsylvania's most famous citizens like W.C. Fields and Andrew Mellon, and hosting notable guests like Pulitzer Prize-Winner Joseph Ellis and former Phillies' greats Bill White and Tug McGraw. Back when it premiered on PCN in 1996, PA Books was only available on PCN on cable. With PCN Select viewers can stream new and on demand episodes of PA Books at any time.

New episodes air Sundays at 7 PM. You can also catch your favorite episodes weekdays at 8AM.

Upcoming Episodes:

October 13: “Sewn in Coal Country” with Robert Wolensky - By the mid-1930s, Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal industry was facing a steady decline. Mining areas such as the Wyoming Valley around the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Pittston were full of willing workers (including women) who proved irresistibly attractive to New York City’s “runaway shops”—ladies’ apparel factories seeking lower labor and other costs. The International Ladies’ Garment […]

October 20: “John Marshall: The Final Founder” with Robert Strauss - Eighteenth- and 19th-century contemporaries believed Marshall to be, if not the equal of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, at least very close to that pantheon. "John Marshall: The Final Founder" demonstrates that not only can Marshall be considered one of those Founding Fathers, but that what he did as the Chief Justice was not just […]