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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Rebecca Harding Davis, Literary Realist

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Rebecca Harding Davis, Literary Realist Author and journalist Rebecca Harding Davis (1831–1910) is best known for writing one of the earliest works of American literary realism, the short story “Life in the Iron-Mills.” In her career, she authored more than 500 publications, including novels, short fiction, essays and newspaper editorials. Several of these works gained a national reputation through their commentary on the working...
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Iron Artisans by Ronald L. Lewis

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Iron Artisans by Ronald L. Lewis Iron Artisans Welsh Immigrants & the American Age of Steel by Ronald L. Lewis University of Pittsburgh Press, 300 pp., hardcover $40 When the U.S. was becoming the preeminent industrial power in the world, iron, steel and tinplate manufacturing were at the forefront of that transformation. But as Ronald L. Lewis demonstrates clearly, America’s might owed a great deal to the relatively small...
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Disastrous Floods and the Demise of Steel in Johnstown by Pat Farabaugh

Posted by on May 13, 2022 in | Comments Off on Disastrous Floods and the Demise of Steel in Johnstown by Pat Farabaugh Disastrous Floods and the Demise of Steel in Johnstown by Pat Farabaugh The History Press, 187 pp., paperback $21.99 Those with an interest in Pennsylvania history and natural disasters will never want for more in the examination of the Johnstown Flood and its aftermath. Farabaugh’s study condenses the standard story of Johnstown’s floods while engaging a parallel narrative of the decline of its...
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Cambria City

Posted by on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off on Cambria City Nestled between a bend in the Conemaugh River and a steep bluff, Cambria City is a distinctive, dense neighborhood that tells the story of hundreds of immigrants who came to work in Pennsylvania’s steel mills and coal mines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the founding of the Cambria Iron Works in 1852, investors purchased land across the river from the mill, subdivided it,...
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Paesano: The Struggle to Survive in Ambridge

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Paesano: The Struggle to Survive in Ambridge For nearly three-quarters of a cen­tury, Lucy Derochis, my grandmother, has struggled successfully to preserve and convey her Italian heritage while living in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Her cultivation of familial closeness was rewarded when family members gath­ered to celebrate her eighty-ninth birthday on March 13, 1980. The dur­ability of the tight and close structure of an Italian-American...
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Lebanon County: Small in Size – Rich in Heritage

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lebanon County: Small in Size – Rich in Heritage Lebanon County is located in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the center of the beautiful Lebanon Valley, which is formed by the Blue Ridge of the Kittatinny range of mountains to the north and the South Mountains, or Furnace Hills, to the south. Covering an area of 363 square miles, the county is inhabited by ap­proximately 100,000 people. Between the shale...
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Washington County: From Ice Age to Space Age

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Washington County: From Ice Age to Space Age Southwestern Pennsylvania was for centuries a happy hunt­ing ground for Indians who were living there as long as two thousand years ago. In fact, as the result of archaeological discoveries made at the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter near Avella between 1973 and 1975, University of Pittsburgh anthropologists have proven conclusively that Ice Age people roamed the forests of Washington County even...
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The Stetson Company and Benevolent Feudalism

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Stetson Company and Benevolent Feudalism Philadelphia, during the first three decades of the twentieth century, was known for its great industrial enterprise. The city called itself the World’s Greatest Workshop and was a leader in the manufacture of more than 200 different items. It ranked first in the nation in the pro­duction of hosiery and knit goods, carpets and rugs, locomotives, street railway cars, saws, surgical...
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Geography and Resources: The Story of Adaptation

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Geography and Resources: The Story of Adaptation The country itself, in its soil, air, water, seasons, and produce, both natural and artificial, is not to be despised. – William Penn Man is a creative and inventive creature capable of either adapt­ing to the environment, when need be, or adapting the environment to suit his particular needs. In the words of Max Savelle, “the history of the Anglo­American colonies is . . . a history...
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