PA BOOKS on PCN

"The Complete Gettysburg Guide"

J. David Petruzzi is the author of many magazine articles on Eastern Theater cavalry operations, conducts tours of cavalry sites of the Gettysburg Campaign, and is the author of the popular "Buford's Boys" website.

The early settlement of the region around Pittsburgh was characterized by a messy collision of personal, provincial, national, and imperial interests. Driven by the efforts of Europeans, Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and Indians, almost everyone attempted to manipulate the clouded political jurisdiction of the region. A Colony Sprung from Hell traces this complex struggle. The events and episodes that make up the story highlight the difficulties of creating and consolidating authority along the frontier, where the local population's acceptance or denial of authority determined the extent to which any government could impose its will. Ultimately, what was at stake was the nature of authority itself.

Daniel Barr is professor of early American history at Robert Morris University in suburban Pittsburgh. His previous books include Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America and The Boundaries between Us: Natives and Newcomers along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750–1850.

The Pennsylvania state leagues of the 1880s and 1890s rank among the most interesting minor leagues in the history of baseball. The rules were changing, the world around baseball, particularly the economy, was changing and things that would seem impossible in a later time were happening every year.

These leagues had not only black players but also wholly black teams. They had great major leaguers--on their way up but also on the way back down. In fact, the greatest player of the age, surrounded by what would have been a major league all-star team only a few years before, played in a Pennsylvania minor league for almost a full season. The play was exciting, the players were exciting and the owners, managers and league politics were often more interesting than the games.

Paul Browne is executive director of the Carbondale Technology Transfer Center. A member of SABR since the mid-1990s, he has contributed to the SABR BioProject site, SABR's Nineteenth and Minor Leagues Committee newsletters and local newspapers. He lives in Carbondale, Pennsylvania.

On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero. Anyone who saw Clemente, as he played with a beautiful fury, will never forget him. He was a work of art in a game too often defined by statistics. During his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won four batting titles and led his team to championships in 1960 and 1971, getting a hit in all fourteen World Series games in which he played. His career ended with three-thousand hits, the magical three-thousandth coming in his final at-bat, and he and the immortal Lou Gehrig are the only players to have the five-year waiting period waived so they could be enshrined in the Hall of Fame immediately after their deaths.

"Civil War Voices from York County, PA"

We see the loneliness of a Yorker serving as a guard at Fort Monroe, Va., whose mundane routine is broken by a visit from U.S. Grant and President Lincoln. We see the fear and uncertainty expressed by a worried housewife as rumors of the impending Confederate invasion reach northwestern York County. We hear the defiance in the voice of a former soldier who is willing to pick up the musket again in defense of his country. We hear the voice of a young York man who helps in the gruesome field hospitals at Gettysburg, an experience that leads him into a career as a physician. We learn how a frightened child hides silently in a cherry tree as gray-coated soldiers rode through her parents' farm. These voices, and nearly two hundred more, bring to life what it was like to live in south-central Pennsylvania during America's most tumultuous period.

Scott Mingus has written "Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863"; "The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign" five other Civil War books, an numerous magazine articles. He is a sanctioned Civil War guide for the York County Heritage Trust. He is a scientist and executive in the paper and printing industry, and is a graduate of Miami University n Oxford, OH.

James McClure is the author of "East of Gettysburg: A Gray Shadow Crosses York County, PA"; "Almost Forgotten" A Glimpse at Black History in York County, PA"; and three other books on York County history. He earned a master's degree in American Studies at Penn State Harrisburg and is editor of the York Daily Record/ Sunday News.

"The Civil War in Pennsylvania"

Written by Michael Kraus, David Neville, and Kenneth Turner, and edited by the History Center's Brian Butko, the book features a collection of 475 rare and unpublished images that highlight Pennsylvania's role on the battlefield and on the home front.

This is the first book ever devoted exclusively to Chuck Noll and it is long overdue. You will learn much about this man who was rated the No.5 coach of all time in a poll taken in 2013. Jim O'Brien has interviewed Noll many times through the years and, most recently, he has interviewed some of the great players from those teams of the ‘70s and ‘80s who shed some interesting light on their coach. You also catch up on what's become of those great players from the Steelers when they were the Team of the Decade.

Jim O'Brien is proud to be the only Pittsburgher ever named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. He was honored at the NCAA Final Four Basketball Tournament in New Orleans in April of 2003. O'Brien has also won the Bob Prince Award for his contributions to journalism, the Vectors' David L. Lawrence Award for promoting Pittsburgh through his books, and was inducted into the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. He was honored as a "Legend" by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Currently Jim has written his 18th book in 18 years, his 20th about Pittsburgh and 23nd altogether. He has been a sportswriter with The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, The Miami News, The New York Post and The Pittsburgh Press, a contributing columnist to The Sporting News, The Football News, Basketball Times and Basketball News.

A hugely successful businessman and entrepreneur, American candy magnate Milton Hershey and his wife Catherine were unable to have children of their own, so the couple set up a trust in 1909 and created the Hershey Industrial School for fatherless, healthy, Caucasian boys. Ever since its creation, the huge legal trust has poured profits from the candy business into this charitable venture, and is legally stipulated to do so in perpetuity. Since the inception of what is now known as the Milton Hershey School, the institution has become the nation s richest residential facility for impoverished youth and the richest private school.

As Bob Fernandez reveals in The Chocolate Trust: Deception, Indenture and Secrets at the $12 Billion Milton Hershey School, the school was established to help poor children in need. In fact, Milton Hershey forced widows to sign indentures, or contracts, for their boys so that they could benefit from his charity. The boys themselves lived and worked on the dozens of dairy farms integrated into Hershey s milk chocolate empire. The author also divulges that through the years, the school has been laden with scandal, racism and sexual misconduct, and plagued with a myriad of political and financial conflicts.

Throughout this thoroughly researched work, Fernandez poses serious questions about the quality of care offered over the last century by this multi-billion-dollar institution. The author also discloses how monies generated by Hershey s assets have created temptations for those overseeing the Trust, including when Trust and state officials diverted tens of millions of dollars earmarked for the students welfare into a medical center for Pennsylvania State University, claiming there were not enough orphans in America to help.

The Chocolate Trust also reveals that, for years, no national experts on at-risk children, residential education, childhood education, child psychology or poverty were appointed to the Trust s board. A number of chapters in the book explore the unfortunate circumstances and scandals that have taken place throughout the school s history with response to admitting children of color, rejecting a student with HIV for admission, as well as various tragedies that occurred involving students due to the school s policies. In an ironic twist, the book s last chapter examines the role of charity-controlled Hershey Chocolate in sourcing its cocoa from African farms that utilize forced child labor.

Every city in America is unique. Each has its own instructive tale of success and failure. What makes Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's story most valuable lies not in its life but in its death - and in the actions of those who killed it. In late 2011, Harrisburg became the first - and only - capital city in American history to file for bankruptcy. For four years, investigative reporter Chris Papst provided award-winning coverage of this unprecedented financial collapse. Now, he has authored a book sharing his experiences while detailing what went wrong.

Chris Papst is a multiple Emmy-award winning investigative reporter whose work has initiated changes in law and sparked criminal investigations. He currently works at ABC 7/WJLA in Washington, DC.