From Memory to Memorial by J. William Thompson

From Memory to Memorial: Shanksville, America, and Flight 93 by J. William Thompson Penn State University Press, 200 pp., paper $19.95 The crash site and memorialization of Flight 93 near Shanksville, Somerset County, hasn’t received as much attention as the other sites touched by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This short, thoughtful and exceptionally well-written book brings...
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Serious Nonsense by William W. Donner

Serious Nonsense: Groundhog Lodges, Versammlinge, and Pennsylvania German Heritage by William W. Donner Penn State University Press, 208 pp., paper $29.95 Serious Nonsense looks at the origin and development of the Pennsylvania Dutch versammlinge, a type of meeting in which the order of business and program are conducted solely in the Pennsylvania Dutch language, often referred to as “the...
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Emilie Davis’s Civil War by Judith Giesberg

Emilie Davis’s Civil War: The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia, 1863-1865 edited by Judith Giesberg, transcribed and annotated by the Memorable Days Project Penn State Press, 240 pp., cloth $59.95, paper $16.95 Free African American servant and seamstress Emilie Davis lived in Philadelphia during the Civil War and recorded her daily experiences and thoughts in a diary from January...
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