PA BOOKS on PCN

Hear the untold story of a forgotten American, John Hart, whose adventures helped pave the way for the United States' emergence as an international power. For nearly three years, Hart became the most visible of a disparate group of mariners between New York and Key West who tormented Spanish authorities, riled the US government, and became heroes to an oppressed people fighting to be free. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

With a colorful supporting cast second to none, Three Roads to Gettysburg tells the story of Robert E. Lee, George Gordon Meade, and Abraham Lincoln, the monumental Battle of Gettysburg, and the immortal address that has come to define America. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In August 1862, Pennsylvania quickly responded to President Lincoln's request for more troops. These devoted groups of mostly central Pennsylvanians, were to become the soldiers of the 130th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. Through their diaries, letters, memoirs, and personal accounts, the men tell their heroic story. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Despite her success setting a self-supported Fastest Known Time record on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, Heather "Anish" Anderson still had such deep-seated insecurities that she became convinced her feat had been a fluke. So two years later she set out again, this time hiking through mud, rocks, and mountain blazes to crush her constant self-doubt and seek the true source of her strength and purpose. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Before the 1950 World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies were infamous for a record-breaking lack of achievement that dated from their conception in 1883 through the 1940s. Nicknamed the "Whiz Kids" because they had so many players under thirty, the 1950 Phillies team caught lightning in a bottle for one season and became legendary in Philadelphia and beyond. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Theatres of the Body is a critical examination of danced stage productions in antebellum Philadelphia. At the time, the city boasted the largest number of native-born ballet dancers in the young nation and also became a creative home to blackface star T. D. Rice, who helped popularize that performance genre. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Award-winning author Michael C. Harris's impressive Fighting for Philadelphia: Forts Mercer and Mifflin, the Battle of Whitemarsh, and the Road to Valley Forge, October 5-December 19, 1777 rescues these important actions from obscurity, puts them in context with the Saratoga Campaign, and closes his magnificent trilogy that began with the battle of Brandywine and left off with the slugfest at Germantown. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The life and medical practice of Reuben Harris Muth, M.D., a rural saddlebag doctor, is reconstructed from an extant set of physician's daybooks, chronicling his professional activity from 1858 until 1898. Experience a rare glimpse of early medical history from an economic and cultural perspective. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Introduced at the 1876 Centennial Exposition and powered by an historic advertising campaign, Hires Root Beer - launched 10 years before Coca-Cola - blazed the trail for development of the American soft drink industry. Its inventor, Charles Elmer Hires, has been described as "a tycoon with the soul of a chemist." Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Philadelphia boasts some of the most delicious original sandwiches and passionate sandwich aficionados. From the classic cheesesteak to the delectable roast pork, the city's cultural and ethnic diversity has resulted in many of America's most established meals between bread. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Mike Stack was born to power and followed his father and grandfather into the ring of fire of Philadelphia politics. He was groomed for office, and was running in his early 20s. This is the story about all those Mike encountered in the often bloody, city of brotherly love. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

As the nation's future hung in the balance, the Weather Gods delivered a wrath of fury on Union and Confederate forces throughout the Gettysburg Campaign. Authors Jeffrey J. Harding and Jon M. Nese present firsthand accounts, harrowing narratives and groundbreaking meteorological research that reshapes how we view the Civil War's Gettysburg Campaign. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

When news reached Parliament of the Boston radicals' destruction of the Royal East India Company's tea, it passed the Coercive Acts, a collection of punitive measures designed to rein in that insubordinate seaport town. The Coercive Acts unleashed a political firestorm as communities from Massachusetts to Georgia drafted resistance resolutions condemning Parliament's perceived encroachment upon American liberty. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The untold story of how America's declaration of independence hinged on seven critical months in 1776 and the courageous votes that changed the world forever. This gripping account reveals the precarious path to American independence through a series of pivotal dates that history has nearly forgotten. While July 4th claims the glory, the actual vote for independence came on July 2nd-and even that historic moment almost didn't happen. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

From December 12-19, 1777, Washington's Army encamped in the towering hills of Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia. Known as the Threshold to Valley Forge, the Gulph Mills Encampment is often forgotten or minimized, falling as it did between the more famous military engagements of the Philadelphia Campaign and the well-known experience of the army at Valley Forge. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In summer 2023, Chester County, Pennsylvania, was shaken by the daring escape of convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante. Cavalcante scaled a prison wall, sparking a gripping two-week manhunt. He traversed forests, farmlands, and neighborhoods, evading law enforcement and causing schools to close, businesses to shutter, and streets to empty. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Learn about the stories of the men and women who traveled across the mountain ranges and through the valleys that made up the Appalachian region, focusing on the 18th century leading to the American Revolution and events that occurred mainly in Pennsylvania and New York. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Pittsburgh contains multitudes. From the decline of the steel industry and the exodus of a vast diaspora of Pittsburghers to its reinvention as a trendy mid-sized metropolis, the ethos of the Steel City remains ever-changing. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

From the 1920s through the 1960s, Pittsburgh's Hill District was the heart of the city's Black cultural life and home to a vibrant jazz scene. In Jazz in the Hill: Nightlife and Narratives of a Pittsburgh Neighborhood, Colter Harper looks at how jazz shaped the neighborhood and created a way of life. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

A born daredevil, John Homan joined the Army Air Forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor. By 1944, he was co-piloting a B-24 Liberator over Nazi Germany, raining death and destruction on the enemy. The tale will leave readers staggered by the determination and grit of World War II aviators. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

From the origins of "Penn's Woods" to the controversial practice of fracking, Cradle of Conservation provides the first comprehensive study of Pennsylvania's environmental history. The story starts with forester Ralph Brock at the dawn of the conservation era and continues through the eras of energy production using coal, oil, natural gas, and other resources. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

"Never To Be Forgotten" tells the story of York County Pennsylvania residents just living their lives, building homes, raising families, making things and growing communities. The general history of this south central Pennsylvania county shows - with concise writing and more than 250 pictures - a community that is working hard at getting better - a place and people that are building on a worthy past honed with strong hands, smart minds and kind hearts and heading toward a future with a sense of its promise. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Take a new definitive look through the eyes of a misunderstood backcountry merchant, Major William Trent, who not only overcame obstacles and suffered loss, but whose strong quill and rebellious interactions with future founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington, ambitiously helped shape and form the future United States of America. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Philadelphia is famous for its colonial and revolutionary buildings and artifacts, but Philadelphia existed long before the Liberty Bell was first rung, and its history extends well beyond the American Revolution.This book presents a comprehensive portrait of the city, from the region's original Lenape inhabitants to the myriad of residents in the twenty-first century. This project was financed in part by a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Department of Community and Economic Development. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Gathering a treasure trove of powerful, rare, and haunting original documents, New York Times bestselling author and award-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo presents a uniquely readable and intimate oral history of the Civil War's turning point. We hear from a Union staff officer, a Confederate amputee, artilleryman, a sympathetic Northern woman, a Union prisoner-of-war, Union colonels and Confederate generals, a drummer boy, a fearful college student, those who orchestrated the Battle of Gettysburg, those who survived it, and those who would perish. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the Keystone State's formal and informal political institutions and players, past and present, and elucidates the place each holds in governing the commonwealth today. Covering a period of more than three hundred years, this volume presents a clear and succinct overview of the commonwealth's political history, culture, and geography. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In 1918, Bethlehem Steel started the world's greatest industrial baseball league. Appealing to Major League Baseball players looking to avoid service in the Great War, teams employed "ringers" like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson in what became scornfully known as "safe shelter" leagues. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Beginning in the early 1990s, Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood began to transform from the post-industrial morass it had been suffering for the last few decades. Artists began to rent empty apartments, what were once shot-and-a-beer bars became hip dive bars and entrepreneurs found inexpensive real estate to follow their visions. It was in this landscape that the Beehive Coffeehouse began to attract a new 90s alternative crowd. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In 1917, at the start of World War I, among global war and a global pandemic, Harrisburgers stepped up and served. The city experienced tribulations as residents feared espionage, suspected foreigners and demanded loyalty. Hospitals struggled with the 1918 flu at their doorstep. Join author Rodney Ross as he charts the World War I era and the Harrisburg home front. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

George Washington has frequently been criticized for his first military campaign, which sparked the French and Indian War. While his campaign failed to meet its objectives, Washington experienced his first taste of military command, dealing with situations that ultimately proved beyond his control, and learned lessons that made him into the man who led the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In late 1975 and early 1976, at the height of the Cold War, two of the Soviet Union's long-dominant national hockey teams traveled to North America to play an eight-game series against the best teams in the National Hockey League. The culmination of the "Super Series" was reigning Soviet League champion HC CSKA Moscow's face-off against the defending NHL champion Flyers in Philadelphia on January 11, 1976. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

"Telling of the Anthracite" explores the various ways in which anthracite history has been represented and remembered since 1960, the chosen date for the start of the "posthistorical" era coinciding approximately with the Knox mine disaster (1959) and the beginning of the Centralia mine fire (1962-), two cataclysmic and fateful events that symbolize the beginning of the end for wide scale deep anthracite mining in northeastern Pennsylvania. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Irving College was the first college to offer degrees in the arts and sciences to women and that two of its buildings still stand to this day. Named after famed author Washington Irving, this college for women was part of a nationwide trend in the nineteenth century to finally educate women, but a trend that was always fraught with opposition. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Of the more than seventy sites associated with the Civil War era that the National Park Service manages, none hold more national appeal and recognition than Gettysburg National Military Park. In "On a Great Battlefield," Jennifer M. Murray chronicles the administration of the National Park Service and how it educates the public about the battle and the Civil War as a whole since it acquired the site in August 1933. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The September 11, 1777, battle of Brandywine, a defeat for General George Washington, is too often forgotten by historians. Brandywine was one of the most important engagements of the war, also the largest land battle. Lafayette began his rise to an American hero that afternoon when he shed his blood for American freedom. Artist Karl J. Kuerner and author Bruce E. Mowday grew up near the main battlefield. Karl received instructions by world-renowned artist Andrew Wyeth. Karl uses his artistic talents to depict Brandywine landscape and Bruce writes about the history. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Turbulent rapids and wild shorelines of the Youghiogheny River highlight natural wonders of the Appalachian Mountains, and midway on the stream's revealing path, Ohiopyle State Park is a showcase of beauty and has become a recreational hotspot where the river thunders over its iconic falls and cascades through the wooded gorges of Pennsylvania. Now, in this revised and expanded edition of his classic narrative on this special landscape and its people, athor, Tim Palmer, revisits the river, addresses the changes that have occurred since the book was first published, and poses the question: What will happen to this historic and cherished place? Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The British Army in North America conducted two campaigns in 1777. John Burgoyne led one army south from Canada to seize control of the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor resulting in the battle of Saratoga. Rather than assist Burgoyne's campaign, William Howe led his army from New York City on the Philadelphia campaign. Although Howe captured Philadelphia, the events of 1777 led to the French Alliance and ultimately American victory in the American Revolution. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The first installment (June 3-22, 1863) carried the armies through the defining mounted clash at Battle of Brandy Station, after which Lee pushed his corps into the Shenandoah Valley and achieved the magnificent victory at Second Winchester on his way to the Potomac. Caught flat-footed, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker used his cavalry to probe the mountain gaps, triggering a series of consequential mounted actions. The current volume (June 23-30) completes the march to Gettysburg and details the actions and whereabouts of each component of the armies up to the eve of the fighting. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as "the most Dangerous Enemies America knows" and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men-seventeen of whom were Quakers-into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Historic Philadelphia has long yielded archaeological treasures from its past. Excavations required by the National Historic Preservation Act have recovered pottery shards, pots, plates, coins, bones, and other artifacts relating to early life in the city. This updated edition of Digging in the City of Brotherly Love continues to use archaeology to learn about and understand people from the past. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

George Marshall was one of America's most significant statesmen during the mid twentieth century. He was born and raised in Uniontown, PA and attended VMI before earning a commission in the U.S. Army in 1902. During World War II he led the Army as Chief of Staff and after the war served as Secretary of State where he initiated the Marshall Plan for the recovery of Europe. In this episode, Army War College professor Tom Bruscino joins us to talk about Marshall's memoir of his service as a staff officer with the American forces in Europe during World War I. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

George Nakashima began his furniture business as a reactionary movement against the practice of 20th century "modern" architecture, design, and art. With a solid background in architectural history and design, engineering and building practice, George turned towards a simpler life in which direct contact with materials, tools, clients, and craftsmen was more important than the imposed egoism of the modern world. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In March 1791 Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton shocked the western frontier when he proposed a domestic excise tax on whiskey to balance America's national debt. As the months passed however the people of Western Pennsylvania grew restless with the inadequacy of the government's response and they soon turned to more violent means of political expression. Take a journey through Western Pennsylvania, following the routes of both the rebels and the U.S. Army to place this important event into context. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

Given the news media's focus on national issues and debates, voters might be expected to make decisions about state and local candidates based on their views of the national parties and presidential candidates. The editors and contributors of this book examine the 2020 elections in six Pennsylvania districts to explore the level of nationalization in campaigns for Congress and state legislature. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

The sniper killings of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, policemen William Davis and Richard Posey shocked the American public in November 1972 and garnered national coverage on the major news networks at the time. Fifty years later, this book, the first to cover the slayings, details the cold-blooded ambush of the two small-town law enforcement officers by a member of the murderous Johnston gang. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

A memoir about a 330-mile walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City - an unforgettable pilgrimage to the heart of America across some of our oldest common ground. Neil King Jr.'s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession as he was determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

In October 1948, a seemingly average fog descended on the tiny mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania. With a population of fewer than fifteen thousand, the town's main industry was steel and zinc mills—mills that continually emitted pollutants into the air. The six-day smog event left twenty-one people dead and thousands sick. Even after the fog lifted, hundreds more died or were left with lingering health problems. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com

George Washington and his Continental Army braving the frigid winter at Valley Forge form an iconic image in the popular history of the American Revolution. Exploring the inner workings of the Continental Army through the prism of its encampments, this book is the first to show how camp construction and administration played a crucial role in Patriot strategy during the war. Donate | Signup | pcntv.com