Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia by Lynn Matluck Brooks

Posted by on Apr 17, 2026 in | Comments Off on Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia by Lynn Matluck Brooks Theatres of the Body Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia by Lynn Matluck Brooks Temple University Press, 306 pages, hardcover $119.50, paperback $36.95 With Theatres of the Body, Lynn Matluck Brooks weaves together two seemingly disparate histories — blackface minstrelsy and the increasingly female art of ballet — to analyze embodied performance in 19th-century Philadelphia. Brooks, a...
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Bettis: Where Pittsburgh Aviation Took Off by Brian Butko and Sue Morris

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on Bettis: Where Pittsburgh Aviation Took Off by Brian Butko and Sue Morris Bettis Where Pittsburgh Aviation Took Off by Brian Butko and Sue Morris Senator John Heinz History Center, 124 pp., paperback $19.95 Most of the 9 million people flying to or through Pittsburgh know only Pittsburgh International Airport, a sprawling, 10,000-acre facility, the largest civil-aviation field in Pennsylvania today. But in fact, it’s only the latest in a succession of four major...
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William Penn: A Radical, Conservative Quaker by J. William Frost

Posted by on Jan 14, 2026 in | Comments Off on William Penn: A Radical, Conservative Quaker by J. William Frost William Penn A Radical, Conservative Quaker by J. William Frost Pennsylvania State University Press, 258 pp., hardcover $119.95, paperback $29.99 In this learned and revealing study of William Penn’s Quaker ideas, identity and interests, J. William Frost provides close readings and brilliant exegesis of Penn’s many and varied writings, preachments and speeches that dispel several myths and...
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The History of Silver Lake by Scott and Kathleen Webb

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on The History of Silver Lake by Scott and Kathleen Webb The History of Silver Lake As Told Through Its Deeds by Scott and Kathleen Webb GWN Publishing, 155 pp., hardcover $39.99, paperback $29.99 Silver Lake is an ancient body of water adjacent to Lewisberry, York County, just 13 miles south of Harrisburg. Once the prehistoric home of reptiles and amphibians, the lake was used as a mill pond in the late 18th and 19th centuries and was developed into...
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The World War One Diary & Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce, edited by William J. Welch

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on The World War One Diary & Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce, edited by William J. Welch The World War One Diary & Art of Doughboy Cpl. Harold W. Pierce Duty, Terror and Survival edited by William J. Welch Pen & Sword, 224 pp., hardcover $37.95 Cpl. Harold Pierce’s diary is a fascinating glimpse of army life in a combat division in the First World War. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Pierce joined the 28th “Keystone” Division in 1917 and served through the armistice in...
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Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry

Posted by on Sep 8, 2025 in | Comments Off on Raising Philadelphia by Justin McHenry Raising Philadelphia The Making of America’s First Great City, 1750–1775 by Justin McHenry Brookline Books, 224 pages, hardcover $32.95 McHenry’s appetite for research and his passion for storytelling combine here to illuminate threads of history and biography into readable stories for a broad audience. Focusing on Philadelphia’s transformation into a cultural and political epicenter...
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Philadelphia: A Narrative History by Paul Kahan

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Philadelphia: A Narrative History by Paul Kahan Philadelphia A Narrative History by Paul Kahan University of Pennsylvania Press, 424 pp., hardcover $39.95 Ambitious in scope, Philadelphia: A Narrative History delivers a deft and accessible narrative of one of America’s oldest cities, and one that, according to Paul Kahan, “does a terrible job remembering most of its own history.” De-centering the traditional narrative that focuses on colonial...
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Cradle of Conservation by Allen Dieterich-Ward

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Cradle of Conservation by Allen Dieterich-Ward Cradle of Conservation An Environmental History of Pennsylvania by Allen Dieterich-Ward Temple University Press, 144 pp., paperback $19.95 Cradle of Conservation is the first comprehensive analysis of the commonwealth’s environmental history and is a superb addition to the Pennsylvania History Series. Better still, this slim volume offers a compelling model for any state eager to better...
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Bethlehem Steel by Steven M. Landis and John K. Landis

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on Bethlehem Steel by Steven M. Landis and John K. Landis Bethlehem Steel Rusting Relic by Steven M. Landis and John K. Landis America Through Time, 96 pp., paperback $24.99 Primarily a collection of photographs taken in 2006, this book captures a period in which the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Northampton County, lay abandoned and decaying before being revitalized as a tourist attraction, with casino, hotel, restaurant and shops. Photographer...
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The French and Indian War in Western Pennsylvania by Robert M. Dunkerly

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on The French and Indian War in Western Pennsylvania by Robert M. Dunkerly The French and Indian War in Western Pennsylvania by Robert M. Dunkerly History Press, 208 pp., paperback $24.99 The French and Indian War in Western Pennsylvania is an accessible and user-friendly introduction to the commonwealth’s role in the Seven Years’ War. Beginning with an overview of the region’s Native American history, Dunkerly employs a tried-and-true approach to guide the reader...
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