Books

In her concise history Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania, Beverly Tomek corrects the long-held notion that slavery in the North was “not so bad” as, or somehow “more humane” than, in the South due to the presence of abolitionists. While the Quaker presence focused on moral and practical opposition to bondage, slavery was ubiquitous. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania was the first state to pass an abolition law in the United States.

Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania traces this movement from its beginning to the years immediately following the American Civil War. Discussions of the complexities of the state’s antislavery movement illustrate how different groups of Pennsylvanians followed different paths in an effort to achieve their goal. Tomek also examines the backlash abolitionists and Black Americans faced. In addition, she considers the civil rights movement from the period of state reconstruction through the national reconstruction that occurred after the Civil War.

While the past few decades have shed light on enslavement and slavery in the South, much of the story of northern slavery remains hidden. Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania tells the full and inclusive story of this history, bringing the realities of slavery, abolition, and Pennsylvania’s attempt to reconstruct its post-emancipation society.

“The history of medicine in Pennsylvania is no less vital to understanding the state’s past than is its political or industrial history,” writes James Higgins in The Health of the Commonwealth, his overview of medicine and public health in the state. Covering the outbreak of yellow fever in 1793 through the 1976 Legionnaire’s Disease epidemic, and the challenges of the present day, he shows how Pennsylvania has played a central role in humanity’s understanding of—and progress against—disease.

Higgins provides close readings of specific medical advances—for instance, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh discovered the polio vaccine—and of disease outbreaks, like AIDS. He examines sanitation and water purification efforts, allopathic medicine and alternative therapies, and the building of the state’s tuberculosis sanitaria. Higgins also describes Native American and pre-modern European folk medicine, the rise of public health in the state, and women’s roles in both folk and scientific medicine.

The Health of the Commonwealth places Pennsylvania’s unique contribution to the history of public health and medicine in a larger narrative of health and disease throughout the United States and the world [Description from the Temple University Press].

138 pages; 6 x 9; 11 halftones

The Scots Irish were one of early Pennsylvania’s largest non-English immigrant groups. They were stereotyped as frontier ruffians and Indian haters. In The Scots Irish of Early Pennsylvania, historian Judith Ridner insists that this immigrant group was socio-economically diverse. Servants and free people, individuals and families, and political exiles and refugees from Ulster, they not only pioneered new frontier settlements, but also populated the state’s cities—Philadelphia and Pittsburgh—and its towns, such as Lancaster, Easton, and Carlisle.

Ridner provides a much-overdue synthesis and reassessment of this immigrant group, tracing a century of Scotch-Irish migration from 1720 to 1820. These men and women brought their version of Ulster to the colonies in their fierce commitments to family, community, entrepreneurship, Presbyterianism, republican politics, and higher education. The settlements they founded across the state, including many farms, businesses, meetinghouses, and colleges, ensured that Pennsylvania would be their cradle in America, and these settlements stand as powerful testaments to their legacy to the state’s history and development. 140 pages, 22 halftones and 3 maps.

Philadelphia: A Brief History provides an accessible and readable overview of the history of Philadelphia from its founding by William Penn to the deindustrialization and gentrification of early twenty-first century. The book develops two main themes. First, Philadelphia’s history is a story of the efforts to sustain economic prosperity while fulfilling community needs and the continued tension between those priorities. Second, Philadelphia’s history was made by its people. Nothing in the city’s history has been inevitable. The study devotes considerable attention to the evolving physical development of the city and to the social conditions and class structure of the people, including the role of women and minorities. Thirty illustrations, five maps, and four tables enrich the fully revised and updated edition, which also includes notes and an index. The volume is part of the Pennsylvania History Series published by the Pennsylvania Historical Association in partnership with Temple University Press.

“Simon’s wonderfully illustrated and written book should serve as the entry into Philadelphia’s history for a variety of audiences. . Indeed, it is hard to imagine a better short history of an American city.” – William Pencak, Pennsylvania History

This book takes you to and beyond the battlefield at Gettysburg, to cities and towns throughout the state where Pennsylvanians fought over the meaning of the Union even as they fought for it. By the time the Civil War began in 1861, white and black Pennsylvanians along the state’s southern border-in towns like Sadsbury, Coatesville, and Christiana-had been fighting with slave owners and catchers for a decade. And, more than a year after Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia left southcentral Pennsylvania, the town of Chambersburg survived another, even more devastating Confederate invasion. For much longer than four years, Pennsylvanians waged war at home and abroad, to save the Union and to rethink its founding principles. Keystone State in Crisis tells that story.

This title is out of print but copies are available at many libraries throughout the state.

In this ambitious history, Daniel K. Richter recounts the story of Native Americans in the Keystone State. Recognizing that Native American history does not begin with the arrival of Europeans, and does not end with their relocation or their concentration on reservations, the author pays significant attention to the millennia before contact, as well as to the developments of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Well-written, carefully researched, and infused with concern for telling the Native American story in all its complexity, this volume provides a lively and thought-provoking survey of the history of the original people of Pennsylvania. (2005). 100 pages, illustrations, maps, and suggestions for further reading.

This title is out of print but copies are available at many libraries throughout the state.

Each presidential election year, it has become common to hear Pennsylvania described as a “battleground state.” How and why did such competitive politics take shape? When did Pennsylvania become so pivotal in electing the president of the United States? In this volume, one of the state’s leading political analysts answers these questions by taking readers behind the scenes of convention dramas and onto the campaign trail as national candidates and favorite sons vie for support. This authoritative, richly detailed history by G. Terry Madonna traces the evolution of presidential politics in Pennsylvania from FDR to the twenty-first century. (2008). 126 pages, illustrations, presidential elections table, and suggestions for further reading.

This title is out of print but copies are available at many libraries throughout the state.

In this wide-ranging history of sports in Pennsylvania, Karen Guenther leads readers from pre-colonial contests among Native American tribes to the big business of modern professional sports. From amateur competition, to colleges, to the pros, readers will relive championship seasons and struggles with defeat – and along the way, follow the important role of sports in the social, cultural, and economic life of the Commonwealth. The volume also provides a guide to Pennsylvania sports in the movies, in museums, and at historic sites, giving readers the opportunity to follow their favorite teams beyond the stadiums and playing fields. This concise, authoritative survey serves as a gateway for general readers who wish to explore the rich variety of sporting life in Pennsylvania. (2007). 117 pages, illustrations, list of national collegiate champions, and suggestions for further reading.

This title is out of print but copies are available at many libraries throughout the state.

Web Extras:

• American Indian Contributions to Pennsylvania Sports History

Learn about the experiences of women who worked in factories, walked picket lines, fought for the vote, managed family life, and battled urban conditions during the transformative years between the Civil War and World War II. With great care to preserve women’s voices in the telling of their own stories, Marion W. Roydhouse has achieved a narrative that spans the Commonwealth and cuts across class lines. For the first time, general readers have an account of this important period that reflects the wealth of research produced by scholars in recent decades. (2007). 106 pages, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading.

This title is out of print but copies are available at many libraries throughout the state.