Every four years when presidential elections roll around, Pennsylvania is a big deal: It's a swing state with 20 electoral votes. But it's been a power player in politics since the beginning. 

During the Gilded Age of the 19th century, captains of industry including Carnegie, Schwab, Rockefeller, Heinz, and Hershey inscribed their names on institutions throughout the state. (Thank you, Milton, for the chocolate kisses!)

Which brings us to food. Pennsylvania is snack food heaven! You've got your cheesesteaks and hoagies and stromboli. Funnel cake, whoopie pies, Twizzlers, Tastykakes, shoofly pie, and oh, yeah... scrapple.

In this episode, we discuss the state's unusual tourist attractions, romp through its history, and name-drop some of the best-known and best-loved Pennsylvanians. Then we recommend five books we love that took us to the Keystone State on the page.

For more on the books we recommend, plus the other cool stuff we talk about, visit show notes at http://strongsenseofplace.com/podcasts/2021-01-25-pennsylvania

Books we cover include:

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