PA BOOKS on PCN

"Gettysburg Rebels" is the gripping true story of five young men who grew up in Gettysburg, moved south to Virginia in the 1850s, joined the Confederate army – and returned "home" as foreign invaders for the great battle in July 1863. Drawing on rarely-seen documents and family histories, as well as military service records and contemporary accounts, Tom McMillan delves into the backgrounds of Wesley Culp, Henry Wentz and the three Hoffman brothers in a riveting tale of Civil War drama and intrigue.

Tom McMillan is the author of "Flight 93: The Story, The Aftermath and The Legacy of American Courage on 9/11." He has spent a lifetime in communications as a newspaper sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others, as a radio talk show host, and, for the past 21 years as VP of Communications for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Description courtesy of Regnery History.

Historian Kathleen Waters Sander tells the story of B&O Railroad President John W. Garrett and the B&O's plan to build a rail line from Baltimore over the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River. The B&O's success ignited "railroad fever" and helped to catapult railroading to America's most influential industry in the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, John W. Garrett became one of the first of the famed Gilded Age tycoons, rising to unimagined power and wealth. Sander explores how—when he was not fighting fierce railroad wars with competitors—Garrett steered the B&O into highly successful entrepreneurial endeavors, quadrupling track mileage to reach important commercial markets, jumpstarting Baltimore's moribund postwar economy, and constructing lavish hotels in Western Maryland to open tourism in the region.

Kathleen Waters Sander teaches history at the University of Maryland University College. She is the author of "The Business of Charity: The Woman's Exchange Movement, 1832–1900" and "Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age."

Description courtesy of Johns Hopkins University Press.

When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the newly independent United States savored its victory and hoped for a great future. And yet the republic soon found itself losing an escalating military conflict on its borderlands. In 1791, years of skirmishes, raids, and quagmire climaxed in the grisly defeat of American militiamen by a brilliantly organized confederation of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware Indians. With nearly one thousand U.S. casualties, this was the worst defeat the nation would ever suffer at native hands. Americans were shocked, perhaps none more so than their commander in chief, George Washington, who saw in the debacle an urgent lesson: the United States needed an army.

"Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West" tells the overlooked story of how Washington achieved his aim. In evocative and absorbing prose, William Hogeland conjures up the woodland battles and the hardball politics that formed the Legion of the United States, our first true standing army. His memorable portraits of leaders on both sides—from the daring war chiefs Blue Jacket and Little Turtle to the doomed commander Richard Butler and a steely, even ruthless Washington—drive a tale of horrific violence, brilliant strategizing, stupendous blunders, and valorous deeds. This sweeping account, at once exciting and dark, builds to a crescendo as Washington and Alexander Hamilton, at enormous risk, outmaneuver Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other skeptics of standing armies—and Washington appoints the seemingly disreputable Anthony Wayne, known as Mad Anthony, to lead the legion. Wayne marches into the forests of the Old Northwest, where the very Indians he is charged with defeating will bestow on him, with grudging admiration, a new name: the Black Snake.

William Hogeland is the author of three books on founding U.S. history—"The Whiskey Rebellion," "Declaration," and "Founding Finance"—as well as a collection of essays, "Inventing American History." Born in Virginia and raised in Brooklyn, he lives in New York City.

"Chief Engineer" tells the story of Washington Roebling, the engineer known for building one of the most iconic American structures, the Brooklyn Bridge. "Chief Engineer" reveals that his father, John-a renowned engineer who made his life in America after humble beginnings in Germany-was a tyrannical presence in Washington's life, so his own adoption of that career was hard won. A young man when the Civil War broke out, Washington joined the Union Army, building bridges that carried soldiers across rivers and seeing action in many pivotal battles, from Antietam to Gettysburg-aspects of his life never before fully brought to light. Safely returned, he married the remarkable Emily Warren Roebling, who would play a crucial role in the construction of the unprecedented Brooklyn Bridge. It would be Washington Roebling's grandest achievement, but by no means the only one.

Erica Wagner was literary editor of The Times for seventeen years, and she is now a contributing writer for New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper's Bazaar, as well as writing for many publications in Britain and the United States.

In the deciding game of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, the Pittsburgh Pirates suffered the most dramatic and devastating loss in team history when former Pirate Sid Bream slid home with the winning run. Bream's infamous slide ended the last game played by Barry Bonds in a Pirates uniform and sent the franchise reeling into a record twenty-season losing streak. "The Slide" tells the story of the myriad events, beginning with the aftermath of the 1979 World Series, which led to the fated 1992 championship game and beyond.

Richard "Pete" Peterson is the author and editor of several baseball books, including "The Pirates Reader," "Growing Up With Clemente," "Pops: The Willie Stargell Story," and "Extra Innings: Writing on Baseball." A Pittsburgh native, Peterson is professor emeritus of English at Southern Illinois University.

Stephen Peterson has worked as a teacher and screenwriter for the last ten years. He resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Founded in 1682 by a society that had no military, eschewed violence as a means of solving conflicts, and tolerated a wide variety of religions, Pennsylvania began as a "peaceable kingdom"—but war was essential to both Pennsylvania's founding and its history. Pennsylvania was the site of some of the most important military events in American history, including the destruction of the Braddock Expedition, the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, Valley Forge, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the Battle of Gettysburg. Pennsylvania was also a leader in America's modern wars, with the Pennsylvania-based 28th Infantry Division serving with distinction in both world wars as well as in Iraq, and the state's industry, particularly steel production and ship building, being essential to the natinal effort. Complete with a list of historical sites and a comprehensive bibliography, "Pennsylvania: A Military History" is an important reference for those interested in the role of the Keystone State in our nation's wars.

Barbara Gannon is associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida.

Christian Keller is a professor in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U. S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA.

Pittsburgh's drinking culture is a story of its people: vibrant, hardworking and innovative. During Prohibition, the Hill District became a center of jazz, speakeasies and creative cocktails. In the following decades, a group of Cuban bartenders brought the nightlife of Havana to a robust café culture along Diamond Street. Disco clubs gripped the city in the 1970s, and a music-centered nightlife began to grow in Oakland with such clubs as the Electric Banana. Today, pioneering mixologists are forging a new and exciting bar revival in the South Side and throughout the city.

Cody McDevitt is an award-winning journalist who works full time for the Somerset Daily American. His work has appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Table Magazine and Pittsburgh Quarterly.

Sean Enright is one of the founding fathers of the craft cocktail movement in Pittsburgh. He has managed many of Pittsburgh's most prestigious restaurants and helped found the Pittsburgh Chapter of the United States Bartenders' Guild. Sean has also been active in the Pittsburgh art community, where he produced a literary art magazine called yawp.