Morning Drive
By Michael Smerconish
Globe Pequot Press, 246 Goose Lane, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT  06437

Michael Smerconish, the nationally syndicated radio talk show host who has delighted and challenged listeners with his unique brand of outspoken candor, has written a memoir offering readers an assessment of the issues confronting America- complete with behind-the-scenes encounters with the pundits and politicians who conspire to control debate and discussion.  As Smerconish evolves from high school activist to a paid analyst on MSNBC appearing as a regular on “Hardball” and other major cable news programs, readers learn how his is frequently remanded to “the wing nut chair.”  Smerconish educates readers on the “preparation” that leading talk show hosts engage in before issues are presented- “preparation” that frequently calls for guest guarantees on what political position they will take on key issues and election-related news so as to engender television and radio food fights. 

Jailing the Johnston Gang
by Bruce Mowday
Barricade Books, 185 Bridge Plaza North, Suite 308-A, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

Pennsylvania's Johnston Gang, led by Bruce Johnston Sr. and his brothers Norman and David, netted millions through a prolific burglary ring during the 1960s and '70s. But in 1978, fearing that younger members of the gang were going to rat them out to the authorities, the brothers killed four teenagers and nearly killed Bruce Sr.'s own son. This book draws on personal interviews with investigators, attorneys, and even former gang members to detail how the combined efforts of federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies brought the brothers to justice.

A Fragile Freedom
by Erica Armstrong
Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT  06520

This book is the first to chronicle the lives of African American women in the urban north during the early years of the republic. “A Fragile Freedom” investigates how African American women in Philadelphia journeyed from enslavement to the precarious status of “free persons” in the decades leading up to the Civil War and examines comparable developments in the cities of New York and Boston.

Erica Armstrong Dunbar argues that early nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where most African Americans were free, enacted a kind of rehearsal for the national emancipation that followed in the post–Civil War years. She explores the lives of the “regular” women of antebellum Philadelphia, the free black institutions that took root there, and the previously unrecognized importance of African American women to the history of American cities.

Pittsburgh Signs Project
By Jennifer Baron
Carnegie Mellon University Press, 5032 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA  15289-1021

Pittsburgh Signs Project: 250 Signs of Western Pennsylvania is a crowd-sourced book of photographs documenting and celebrating the visual landscape of the region through its signs, past and present. 

Pre-empted for Gettysburg programming

Peaceable Kingdom Lost
By Kevin Kenny
Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY  10016

William Penn established Pennsylvania in 1682 as a "holy experiment" in which Europeans and Indians could live together in harmony. In this book, historian Kevin Kenny explains how this Peaceable Kingdom--benevolent, Quaker, pacifist--gradually disintegrated in the eighteenth century, with disastrous consequences for Native Americans. Kenny recounts how rapacious frontier settlers, most of them of Ulster extraction, began to encroach on Indian land as squatters, while William Penn's sons cast off their father's Quaker heritage and turned instead to fraud, intimidation, and eventually violence during the French and Indian War. In 1763, a group of frontier settlers known as the Paxton Boys exterminated the last twenty Conestogas, descendants of Indians who had lived peacefully since the 1690s on land donated by William Penn near Lancaster. Invoking the principle of "right of conquest," the Paxton Boys claimed after the massacres that the Conestogas' land was rightfully theirs. They set out for Philadelphia, threatening to sack the city unless their grievances were met. A delegation led by Benjamin Franklin met them and what followed was a war of words, with Quakers doing battle against Anglican and Presbyterian champions of the Paxton Boys. The killers were never prosecuted and the Pennsylvania frontier descended into anarchy in the late 1760s, with Indians the principal victims. The new order heralded by the Conestoga massacres was consummated during the American Revolution with the destruction of the Iroquois confederacy. At the end of the Revolutionary War, the United States confiscated the lands of Britain's Indian allies, basing its claim on the principle of "right of conquest."

Heirloom: Notes From An Accidental Tomato Farmer
By Tim Stark
Broadway Books (Random House), 1745 Broadway, New York, NY  10019

Fourteen years ago, Tim Stark was living in Brooklyn, working days as a management consultant, and writing unpublished short stories by night. One evening, chancing upon a Dumpster full of discarded lumber, he carried the lumber home and built a germination rack for thousands of heirloom tomato seedlings. His crop soon outgrew the brownstone in which it had sprouted, forcing him to cart the seedlings to his family’s farm in Pennsylvania, where they were transplanted into the ground by hand. When favorable weather brought in a bumper crop, Tim hauled his unusual tomatoes to New York City’s Union Square Greenmarket, at a time when the tomato was unanimously red. The rest is history. Today, Eckerton Hill Farm does a booming trade in heirloom tomatoes and obscure chile peppers. Tim’s tomatoes are featured on the menus of New York City’s most demanding chefs and have even made the cover of Gourmet magazine.

Resurrecting Allegheny City
By Lisa Miles
Lisamilesviolin.com

Home to Roost
By Bob Sheasley
St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10010-7848

Each day, Bob Sheasley leaves Lilyfield Farm and heads into the city. And each day, he brings along a basket of eggs for his coworkers at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Depending on the breed of hen, these eggs may be white, green, rose, blue, or as brown as chocolate. And they are all deliciously fresh, a taste of the rural way of life that people have enjoyed for millennia, one in which chickens have played a supporting role for nearly as long.  In Home to Roost, Sheasley tells of the intertwined relationship between humans and chickens. He delves into where chickens came from, what their DNA tells us about our kinship, how we’ve treated our feathered fellow travelers, and the roads we’re crossing together. This is a story of agriculture and human migration, of folk medicine and technology, of how we dreamed of the good life, threw it away, and want it back.

The Longest Trip Home
by John Grogan
William Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers, 10 E 53rd Street, New York, NY  10022

Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s and '70s. Despite his loving parents' best efforts, John's attempts to meet their expectations failed spectacularly. Whether it was his disastrous first confession, the use of his hobby telescope to take in the bronzed Mrs. Selahowski sunbathing next door, the purloined swigs of sacramental wine, or, as he got older, the fumbled attempts to sneak contraband past his father and score with girls beneath his mother's vigilant radar, John was figuring out that the faith and fervor that came so effortlessly to his parents somehow had eluded him.  And then one day, a strong-willed young woman named Jenny walked into his life. As their love grew, John began the painful, funny, and poignant journey into adulthood—away from his parents' orbit and into a life of his own. It would take a fateful call and the onset of illness to lead him on the final leg of his journey—the trip home again.

The Big Book of Pennsylvania Ghost Stories
By Mark Nesbitt and Patty Wilson
Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA  17055-6921

A treasury of 125 ghost stories from the Keystone State makes up this huge volume. Each region of Pennsylvania is represented by an assortment of eerie tales, gathered by two of the state’s best-known authors on the subject, including:

• Tragic specters of Gettysburg
• Pittsburgh’s legendary Green Man
• Revolutionary spirits in Philadelphia
• Foreboding Ax Hollow near Erie
• Mysterious mountain tales of the Scotia Barrens, Captain Phillips’s murdered rangers, and the Lost Children of the Alleghenies.

Mark Nesbitt lives in Gettysburg and is the author of the popular six-volume series Ghosts of Gettysburg. He also wrote 35 Days to Gettysburg, Saber and Scapegoat, and Through Blood and Fire.

Ruanaidh
By Art Rooney, Jr.
Ruanaidh LLC, 1700 N. Highland Road, 304 Southmark Building, Pittsburgh, PA  15241

Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America
By Meredith Mason Brown
Louisiana State University Press, Bldg 3005, 8000 GSRI Road, Baton Rouge, LA  70820

The name Daniel Boone conjures up the image of an illiterate, coonskin cap-wearing patriot who settled Kentucky and killed countless Indians. The scarcity of surviving autobiographical material has allowed tellers of his story to fashion a Boone of their own liking, and his myth has evolved in countless stories, biographies, novels, poems, and paintings. In Frontiersman: Daniel Boone and the Making of America, author Meredith Mason Brown separates the real Daniel Boone from the many fables that surround him, revealing a man far more complex—and far more interesting—than his legend.
Brown traces Boone's life from his Pennsylvania childhood to his experiences in the militia and his rise as an unexcelled woodsman, explorer, and backcountry leader. In the process, we meet the authentic Boone: he didn't wear coonskin caps; he read and wrote better than many frontiersmen; he was not the first to settle Kentucky; he took no pleasure in killing Indians.

For the Love of Murphy’s
By Jason Togyer
Penn State University Press, 820 North University Drive, Suite C, University Park, PA  16802

Five-and-ten stores were immensely popular during the middle fifty years of the twentieth century, selling cheap, dependable goods to people from all walks of life.  Now the product of a bygone era, these stores were revolutionary in their time, but few today appreciate how important they were in creating our present-day consumer culture.  In this caring but honest look at one of the best-known chains of five-and-tens, Jason Togyer traces the history of the G. C. Murphy company, headquartered in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.

Daniel J. Flood
By Sheldon Spear
Lehigh University Press, B040 Christmas- Saucon Hall, 14 East Packer Ave, Bethlehem, PA  18015

This is a biography of one of the most prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives during the twentieth century. A Democrat, Flood represented Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District for thirty-one years. His ability to provide for his depressed district emanated mainly from his chairmanship of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HEW. Flood surpassed most of his colleagues in the extremism of his anti-Communist rhetoric. Focusing frequently on Eastern Europe helped him politically, given the demographics of the district. But his real obsession was the Panama Canal. He advocated permanent U.S. possession of the canal and Canal Zone and publicized the issue from 1958 until 1978, his next-to-last year in office. Flood's career ended with his indictment and trial on a variety of corruption charges. A plea agreement allowed him to evade prison time, but he resigned his long-held seat in January 1980 and remains a figure whose achievements are clouded by scandal.

Levittown
By David Kushner
Walker & Company, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10010

The dark side of the American dream: the true story of the first African-American family to move into the iconic suburb, Levittown, PA .  In the decade after World War II, one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. The Levitts—William, Alfred, and their father, Abe—pooled their
talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat, but not to everyone. Levittown had a whites-only policy.

The events that unfolded in Levittown, PA, in the unseasonably hot summer of 1957 would rock the community. There, a white Jewish Communist family named Wechsler secretly arranged for a black family, the Myerses, to buy the pink house next door. The explosive reaction would transform their lives, and the nation, leading to the downfall of a titan and the integration of the most famous suburb in the world.  Levittown is a story of hope and fear, invention and rebellion, and the power that comes when ordinary
people take an extraordinary stand.  

Mob Files
by George Anastasia
Camino Books, P.O. Box 59026, Philadelphia, PA  19102

For more than 25 years as a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer George Anastasia has made tracking the American Mafia his regular beat, writing investigates pieces, profiles and slices of underworld life. Mobfiles is a compilation of his best work -- stories told from street level and often based on insights and access provided by investigators, prosecutors and the mobsters themselves. Mobfiles provides the true stories around which classics like The Godfather and The Sopranos have been built.

The Men Who Loved Trains
by Rush Loving
Indiana University Press, 601 N. Morton Street, Bloomington, IN  47404

A saga about one of the oldest and most romantic enterprises in the land—America's railroads—The Men Who Loved Trains introduces some of the most dynamic businessmen in America. Here are the chieftains who have run the railroads, including those who set about grabbing power and big salaries for themselves, and others who truly loved the industry.  Author Rush Loving uncovers intrigue, greed, lust for power, boardroom battles, and takeover wars. Included is the story of how the chairman of CSX Corporation, who later became George W. Bush's Treasury secretary, was inept as a manager but managed to make millions for himself while his company drifted in chaos. Men such as he were shy of scruples, yet there were also those who loved trains and railroading, and who played key roles in reshaping transportation in the northeastern United States.

The Professor and the Pupil
by Murali Balaji
Nation Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY  10016

W. E. B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson were both leading figures of the African American movement; their writing and teachings continue to inspire people around the world today. The Professor and the Pupil chronicles the 40-year friendship between Du Bois and Paul Robeson. Journalist Murali Balaji explores how both men evolved into leaders of the American Left, examining their philosophical transformation and their alienation from mainstream political thought following World War II. Balaji also explains why Du Bois and Robeson became ostracized for their political views and why so few African American leaders stood up to defend them during the height of the Cold War. In examining the lives of both men, The Professor and the Pupil also details the changing social and political conditions around the world that led Du Bois and Robeson to their political epiphanies and eventually their downfall in the United States.

Morning Drive
By Michael Smerconish
Globe Pequot Press, 246 Goose Lane, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT  06437

Michael Smerconish, the nationally syndicated radio talk show host who has delighted and challenged listeners with his unique brand of outspoken candor, has written a memoir offering readers an assessment of the issues confronting America- complete with behind-the-scenes encounters with the pundits and politicians who conspire to control debate and discussion.  As Smerconish evolves from high school activist to a paid analyst on MSNBC appearing as a regular on “Hardball” and other major cable news programs, readers learn how his is frequently remanded to “the wing nut chair.”  Smerconish educates readers on the “preparation” that leading talk show hosts engage in before issues are presented- “preparation” that frequently calls for guest guarantees on what political position they will take on key issues and election-related news so as to engender television and radio food fights. 

Jailing the Johnston Gang
by Bruce Mowday
Barricade Books, 185 Bridge Plaza North, Suite 308-A, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

Pennsylvania's Johnston Gang, led by Bruce Johnston Sr. and his brothers Norman and David, netted millions through a prolific burglary ring during the 1960s and '70s. But in 1978, fearing that younger members of the gang were going to rat them out to the authorities, the brothers killed four teenagers and nearly killed Bruce Sr.'s own son. This book draws on personal interviews with investigators, attorneys, and even former gang members to detail how the combined efforts of federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies brought the brothers to justice.

A Fragile Freedom
by Erica Armstrong
Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT  06520

This book is the first to chronicle the lives of African American women in the urban north during the early years of the republic. “A Fragile Freedom” investigates how African American women in Philadelphia journeyed from enslavement to the precarious status of “free persons” in the decades leading up to the Civil War and examines comparable developments in the cities of New York and Boston.

Erica Armstrong Dunbar argues that early nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where most African Americans were free, enacted a kind of rehearsal for the national emancipation that followed in the post–Civil War years. She explores the lives of the “regular” women of antebellum Philadelphia, the free black institutions that took root there, and the previously unrecognized importance of African American women to the history of American cities.

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Marley & Me Author: John Grogan

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