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PA BOOKS on PCN episodes

July 01, 2019 “Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America” with Joe William Trotter
From the ongoing issues of poverty, health, housing and employment to the recent upsurge of lethal police-community relations, the black working class stands at the center of perceptions of social and racial conflict today. Journalists and public policy analysts often discuss the black poor as “consumers” rather than “producers,” as “takers” rather than “givers,” and as “liabilities” instead of “assets.” In his new history, "Workers on Arrival," Joe William Trotter refutes these perceptions by charting the black working class’s vast contributions to the making of America. Covering the last four hundred years since Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, Trotter traces black workers’ complicated journey from the transatlantic slave trade through the American Century to the demise of the industrial order in the 21st century. At the center of this compelling, fast-paced narrative are the actual experiences of these African American men and women. A dynamic and vital history of remarkable contributions despite repeated setbacks, Workers on Arrival expands our understanding of America’s economic and industrial growth, its cities, ideas, and institutions, and the real challenges confronting black urban communities today.
Joe William Trotter is Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and Founder and Director of the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of "Black Milwaukee and Coal, Class, and Color" and past President of the Labor and Working Class History Association.
Description courtesy of University of California Press.
59 min
July 01, 2019 "Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent" with William Hogeland
This is the rambunctious story of how America came to declare independence in Philadelphia in 1776. As late as that May, the Continental Congress had no plans to break away from England. Troops under General George Washington had been fighting the British for nearly a year—yet in Philadelphia a mighty bloc known as "reconciliationists," led by the influential Pennsylvanian John Dickinson, strove to keep America part of the British Empire.

But a cadre of activists—led by the mysterious Samuel Adams of Massachusetts and assisted by his nervous cousin John—plotted to bring about American independence. Their audacious secret plan proposed overturning the reconciliationist government of Pennsylvania and replacing it with pro-independence leaders. Remarkably, the adventure succeeded. The Adams coalition set in motion a startling chain of events in the Philadelphia streets, in the Continental Congress, and throughout the country that culminated in the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

In Declaration William Hogeland brings to vibrant life both the day-to-day excitement and the profound importance of those nine fast-paced weeks essential to the American founding yet little known today. He depicts the strange-bedfellow alliance the Adamses formed with scruffy Philadelphia outsiders and elegant Virginia planters to demand liberty. He paints intimate portraits of key figures: John Dickinson, a patriot who found himself outmaneuvered on the losing side of history; Benjamin Franklin, the most famous man in America, engaged in and perplexed by his city's upheavals; Samuel Adams, implacable in changing the direction of Congress; his cousin John, anxious about the democratic aspirations of their rabble-rousing Philadelphia allies; and those democratic radical organizers themselves, essential to bringing about independence, all but forgotten until now.

As the patriots' adventure gathers toward the world-changing climax of the Declaration, conflicts and ironies arise, with trenchant relevance for the most important issues confronting Americans today. Declaration offers a fresh, gripping, and vivid portrait of the passionate men and thrilling events that gave our country birth.

Description courtesy of Simon and Schuster
1 hr
June 24, 2019 "Disciples of Liberty: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Age of Imperialism, 1884-1916" with Lawrence Little
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the African Methodist Episcopal Church provided an ideological foundation for the African American community that was truly world-embracing. While generally identified with the pursuit of liberty for African Americans, the church's concerns can now be seen to have extended far beyond U.S. borders.

In this new study, Lawrence Little describes how the A.M.E. Church reacted to American foreign policy in the years from the partition of Africa in 1884 to the U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1916. By examining and analyzing church rhetoric and actions in response to imperialism and oppression, he shows how the A.M.E. Church pursued the global application of liberty and identified with oppressed peoples around the world, regardless of race.

Description courtesy of Amazon
1 hr
June 17, 2019 "The Knox Mine Disaster" with Robert and Kenneth Wolensky
The Knox Mine Disaster is much more than a history of an accident—or an industry, for that matter. Because the book draws on the recollections of miners and their families, industry officials, and individuals involved in the legal aftermath of the disaster, it is an epic drama that is as spellbinding as it is sensational. Candid photographs of members of this cast of characters lend a human element that overshadows the gaping hole in the riverbed, the billions of gallons of water that crashed through it, and the tons of twisted equipment and machinery.

Description courtesy of Amazon
59 min
June 10, 2019 "The Foreman's Boys: The Story of Civilian Conservation Corps, Company 1333, Camp S-63, Poe Valley" with William Marcum
Employment prospects for many were bleak at the height of the Great Depression. For unmarried recent high school graduates, the prospect of getting a job was mostly non-existent. President Roosevelt's New Deal plan included the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program specifically targeted to provide employment for those whose job prospects were non-existent. This seventeen to twenty-five-year-old age group would seize upon this opportunity for full-time employment, enroll for a six-month hitch and venture into the unknown. The work projects included tree planting, eradication of destructive vegetation, construction of roads and bridges, fire management, soil management, and the development of parks and recreational areas. This book tells the story about CCC Company 1333, Camp S-63, Poe Valley situated in the rugged mountains of central Pennsylvania. From the first day the camp was activated through the last day of operation, the book is filled with accounts of camp development, work projects, construction of the dam creating Poe Valley lake, and numerous stories told by veterans, camp administrators, and military commanders. Included are hundreds of names of rostered enrollees. Anyone interested in learning what life was like in a CCC camp during and after work hours, this book will provide insight into camp operations and activities.

William Marcum is a Civilian Conservation Corps enthusiast who for many years hosted reunions for veterans of Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1333.

Description courtesy of Sunbury Press.
59 min
June 03, 2019 "Blue-Blooded Cavalryman: Captain William Brooke Rawle in the Army of the Potomac, May 1863–August 1865" with J. Gregory Acken
In May 1863, eighteen-year-old William Brooke Rawle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and traded a genteel, cultured life of privilege for service as a cavalry officer. Traveling from his home in Philadelphia to Virginia, he joined the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry and soon found himself in command of a company of veterans of two years' service, some of whom were more than twice his age. Within eight weeks, he had participated in two of the largest cavalry battles of the war at Brandy Station and Gettysburg. Brooke Rawle and the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry would serve with the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac through April 1864, fighting partisans and guerrillas in Northern Virginia and also seeing action during the Bristoe Station and Mine Run battles of late 1863. A meticulous diarist and letter writer, Brooke Rawle documented nearly everything that came under his observant eye in 150 well-written letters home to his family. These letters, supplemented by his diary entries, provide a fascinating, richly detailed look into the life of a regimental cavalry officer during the last two years of the Civil War in the East.

J. Gregory Acken served for twelve years on the board of governors of the Civil War Library and Museum of Philadelphia.

Description courtesy of Kent State University Press.
59 min
May 28, 2019 "Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost: Captain Trent's Fort" with Jason Cherry
As 1753 came to a close, European empires were set on a collision course for a triangular piece of land known as the Forks of the Ohio at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers. The navigable waterways were valuable to the French to complete their control of the Ohio Valley as the British looked to create a center for their booming fur trade and westward expansion. Former soldier turned trader William Trent set out for the untamed wilderness to stake Britain's claim. He would build the first fort to form the humble beginnings of Pittsburgh and set the staging ground for the French and Indian War. Author Jason A. Cherry details the history of William Trent and Pittsburgh's forgotten first outpost.

Jason A. Cherry has lived in Western Pennsylvania his entire life and has interpreted the French and Indian War for almost thirty years. He resides in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the heart of the Ohio country.

Description courtesy of The History Press.
1 hr
May 20, 2019 "Troublesome Women" with Erica Rhodes Hayden
This book traces the lived experiences of women lawbreakers in the state of Pennsylvania from 1820 to 1860 through the records of more than six thousand criminal court cases. By following these women from the perpetration of their crimes through the state’s efforts to punish and reform them, Erica Rhodes Hayden places them at the center of their own stories. Women constituted a small percentage of those tried in courtrooms and sentenced to prison terms during the nineteenth century, yet their experiences offer valuable insight into the era’s criminal justice system. Hayden illuminates how criminal punishment and reform intersected with larger social issues of the time, including questions of race, class, and gender, and reveals how women prisoners actively influenced their situation despite class disparities. Hayden’s focus on recovering the individual experiences of women in the criminal justice system across the state of Pennsylvania marks a significant shift from studies that focus on the structure and leadership of penal institutions and reform organizations in urban centers.
Erica Rhodes Hayden is Associate Professor of History at Trevecca Nazarene University.
Description courtesy of Penn State Press.
57 min
May 13, 2019 "Longstreet at Gettysburg, A Critical Reassessment" with Cory Pfarr
This is the first book-length, critical analysis of Lieutenant General James Longstreet's actions at the Battle of Gettysburg. The author argues that Longstreet's record has been discredited unfairly, beginning with character assassination by his contemporaries after the war and, persistently, by historians in the decades since. By closely studying the three-day battle, and conducting an incisive historiographical inquiry into Longstreet's treatment by scholars, this book presents an alternative view of Longstreet as an effective military leader, and refutes over a century of negative evaluations of his performance.

Cory M. Pfarr works for the Department of Defense. He lives in Pikesville, Maryland.

Description courtesy of McFarland.
59 min
May 06, 2019 "Battle of Paoli" with Thomas McGuire
In the years since the Revolutionary War, legend has obscured the story of the Battle of Paoli, better known in history as the Paoli Massacre. For this first-ever full-length treatment of the battle, the author has uncovered never-before-published primary documents to tell of British General Charles Grey's brutal attack on Anthony Wayne's division of 1,500 men in September 1777. The detailed account follows the action from the arrival of Wayne's division south of the Schuylkill River, near Paoli Tavern, to defend Philadelphia against Howe's encroaching troops to Grey's discovery of Wayne's position, the bloody battle that ensued, and the subsequent court-martial of Wayne, who had been accused of negligence.

Description courtesy of Google
59 min

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PA Books features authors of books about Pennsylvania-related topics. These hour-long conversations allow authors to discuss both their subject matter and inspiration behind the books.