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On a Saturday in March 1941, Jimmy Stewart, America's boy-next-door actor, left Hollywood behind and took the oath of service in the United States Army Air Corps. Once in the service, Stewart ducked the press at every opportunity and to a large extent for the next four years remained behind the secure perimeters of air bases in the Western Hemisphere serving his country. Then at war's end he refused to discuss what had happened "over there," and continued to be tight lipped about it to the end of his life. In effect, Jimmy Stewart took the story of his military service with him to the grave. “Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe” tells that story by presenting the first in-depth look behind the scenes at Jimmy Stewart's life in the skies over Germany through 20 combat missions, and, ultimately, his return to Hollywood the changed man who embarked on production of his first post-war film, “It's a Wonderful Life.” Robert Matzen spent 10 years working in communications for NASA Headquarters. He is al

The Framers' Coup narrates how the Framers' clashing interests shaped the Constitution--and American history itself. The Philadelphia convention could easily have been a failure, and the risk of collapse was always present. Had the convention dissolved, any number of adverse outcomes could have resulted, including civil war or a reversion to monarchy. Not only does Klarman capture the knife's-edge atmosphere of the convention, he populates his narrative with riveting and colorful stories: the rebellion of debtor farmers in Massachusetts; George Washington's uncertainty about whether to attend; Gunning Bedford's threat to turn to a European prince if the small states were denied equal representation in the Senate; slave staters' threats to take their marbles and go home if denied representation for their slaves; Hamilton's quasi-monarchist speech to the convention; and Patrick Henry's herculean efforts to defeat the Constitution in Virginia through demagoguery and conspiracy theories. Michael J. Klarman is Ki

In “Running the Rails,” James Wolfinger uses the history of Philadelphia’s sprawling public transportation system to explore how labor relations shifted from the 1880s to the 1960s. As transit workers adapted to fast-paced technological innovation to keep the city’s people and commerce on the move, management sought to limit its employees’ rights. Raw violence, welfare capitalism, race-baiting, and smear campaigns against unions were among the strategies managers used to control the company’s labor force and enhance corporate profits, often at the expense of the workers’ and the city’s well-being. This book offers readers a different, historically grounded way of thinking about the people who keep their cities running.

Much like the rest of the nation, South Central Pennsylvania struggled with slavery. The institution lingered locally for more than fifty years, although it was virtually extinct everywhere else within Pennsylvania. Gradually, antislavery views prevailed. The Appalachian Mountains and the Susquehanna River provided natural cover for fleeing slaves, causing an influx of travel along the Underground Railroad. Locals like William Wright and James McAllister assisted these runaways while publicly advocating to abolish slavery. Historian Cooper Wingert reveals the struggles between slavery and abolition in South Central Pennsylvania. Cooper H. Wingert is the author of ten books and numerous articles on slavery and the American Civil War. He is the recipient of the 2012 Dr. James I. Robertson Jr. Literary Award for Confederate History, in recognition for his book “The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg.”

On an August morning in 1877, a dispute over wages exploded between miners and coal company owners. A furious mob rushed down Lackawanna Avenue only to be met by a deadly hail of bullets. With its vast coal fields, mills and rail lines, Scranton became a hotbed for labor activity. Many were discontented by working endless and dangerous hours for minimal pay. The disputes mostly ended in losses for labor, but after a strike that lasted more than one hundred days, John Mitchell helped win higher wages, a shorter workday and better working conditions for coal miners. The legendary 1902 Anthracite Coal Strike Commission hearings began in Scranton, where famed lawyer Clarence Darrow championed workers’ rights. Margo L. Azzarelli, a historian and researcher, has written four local history books for Arcadia Publishing and The History Press and is the local history columnist for “Our Town, Lackawanna County.” Marnie Azzarelli is a local historian and docent for the Lackawanna Historical Society. In 2014, she graduat

Pulitzer Prize–nominated former Wall Street Journal reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells the colorful story of the election battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a professional Democratic politician from New York, and Whig Party upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who was nicknamed "Old Tippecanoe" after a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. Shafer shows how the pivotal campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" marked a series of firsts that changed presidential politicking forever: the first presidential campaign as mass entertainment, directed at middle- and lower-income voters; the first "image campaign," in which strategists painted Harrison as an everyman living in a log cabin sipping hard cider (in fact, he was born into wealth, lived in a twenty-two-room mansion, and drank only sweet cider); the first campaign in which a candidate, Harrison, traveled and delivered speeches directly to voters; the first one influenced by major campaign donations; the first in which women openly

For more than one-fifth of his life, Benjamin Franklin lived in London. He dined with prime ministers, members of parliament, even kings, as well as with Britain’s most esteemed intellectuals—including David Hume, Joseph Priestley, and Erasmus Darwin. In this fascinating history, George Goodwin gives a colorful account of Franklin’s British years. The author offers a rich and revealing portrait of one of the most remarkable figures in U.S. history, effectively disputing the commonly held perception of Franklin as an outsider in British politics. It is an enthralling study of an American patriot who was a fiercely loyal British citizen for most of his life—until forces he had sought and failed to control finally made him a reluctant revolutionary at the age of sixty-nine. George Goodwin is the author of numerous articles and two previous histories, Fatal Colours: Towton 1461 and Fatal Rivalry: Henry VIII, James IV, and the Battle for Renaissance Britain. He is currently Author in Residence at the Benjamin Fra

From abject poverty to undisputed political boss of Pennsylvania, Lincoln’s secretary of war, senator, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a founder of the Republican Party, Simon Cameron (1799–1889) was one of the nineteenth century’s most prominent political figures. The political changes of the early nineteenth century enabled him not only to improve his status but also to exert real political authority. The changes caused by the Civil War, in turn, allowed Cameron to consolidate his political authority into a successful, well-oiled political machine. A key figure in designing and implementing the Union’s military strategy during the Civil War’s crucial first year, Cameron played an essential role in pushing Abraham Lincoln to permit the enlistment of African Americans into the U.S. Army, a stance that eventually led to his forced resignation. Yet his legacy has languished, nearly forgotten save for the fact that his name has become shorthand for corruption, even though no evidence has eve

Based upon a faulty early-morning reconnaissance, General Robert E. Lee decided to attack up the Emmitsburg Road in an effort to collapse the left flank of General George Meade's Army of the Potomac and decisively defeat it. The effort got underway when General James Longstreet's First Corps troops crushed General Sickles' Peach Orchard salient and turned north and east to drive deeply into the Union rear. A third Confederate division under Richard Anderson, part of A. P. Hill's Third Corps, joined in the attack, slamming one brigade after another into the overstretched Union line stitched northward along the Emmitsburg Road. The bloody fighting stair-stepped its way up Cemetery Ridge, tearing open a large gap in the center of the Federal line that threatened to split the Union army in two. The fate of the Battle of Gettysburg hung in the balance. In addition to demonstrating how the fighting on the far Union left directly affected the combat to come in the center of General Meade's line, the authors also ad

The First Congress tells the dramatic story of the two remarkable years when George Washington, James Madison, and their dedicated colleagues struggled to successfully create our government, an achievement that has lasted to the present day. The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and others less well known today, rose to the occasion. During two years of often fierce political struggle, they passed the first ten amendments to the Constitution; they resolved bitter regional rivalries to choose the site of the new national capital; they set in place the procedure for admitting new states to the union; and much more. But the First Congress also confronted some issues that remain to this day: the conflict between states’ rights and the powers of national government; the proper balance between legislative a

Sickles at Gettysburg” No individual who fought at Gettysburg was more controversial, both personally and professionally, than Major General Daniel E. Sickles. By 1863, Sickles was notorious as a disgraced former Congressman who murdered his wife's lover on the streets of Washington and used America's first temporary insanity defense to escape justice. With his political career in ruins, Sickles used his connections with President Lincoln to obtain a prominent command in the Army of the Potomac's Third Corps-despite having no military experience. At Gettysburg, he openly disobeyed orders in one of the most controversial decisions in military history. No single action dictated the battlefield strategies of George Meade and Robert E. Lee more than Sickles' unauthorized advance to the Peach Orchard, and the mythic defense of Little Round Top might have occurred quite differently were it not for General Sickles. Fighting heroically, Sickles lost his leg on the field and thereafter worked to remove General Meade

For over one hundred years, Pomeroy’s was a beloved household name for the shoppers of central and eastern Pennsylvania. Founded in 1876, the store began under another name in Reading and soon expanded to Harrisburg, Pottsville and Wilkes-Barre. George Pomeroy bought out his partners in 1923, and Pomeroy’s became known for its exemplary service and a devoted sales force. From the extraordinary window displays and the annual Christmas parade to a bite at the Tea Room, the stores were a social hub where sweethearts first met and families did their Saturday shopping. Though the final stores closed in 1990, the memories live on. Department store historian Michael Lisicky chronicles the history of Pomeroy’s and takes readers back in time with reminiscences of former employees, interviews with store insiders and a selection of classic recipes. Michael Lisicky has been credited as a nationally recognized department store “historian,” “lecturer,” “expert,” “guru,” “aficionado,” “junkie” and “maven” by several major

The Milton Hershey School is the richest and wealthiest K-12 residential school in the world. Its $12 billion trust fund, financed by sales of the iconic Hershey candy, eclipse that of Cornell, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins combined. Even more stunning is that the school for orphans owns The Hershey Company and not the other way around.

As the twentieth-century drew to a close, the School’s Board of Managers creatively interpreted the Founder’s mission and tried to turn the refuge for extremely needy children into more of a middle-class boarding school. The alumni “Homeguys” challenged the Board and, after a decade of legal struggle and national publicity, won the battle to reclaim the soul of the school.

Johnny O’Brien, an orphan who lived at the school growing up, helped to lead the successful alumni protest. In a shocking turn of events, he was then selected to become Milton Hershey School’s eighth president and tasked with restoring the mission, morale, and character-building culture of “the Home.” He wo

Char Miller chronicles the history of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation Studies and describes its iconic national historic site, Grey Towers, offered by Pinchot’s family as a lasting gift to the American people. As a union of the United States Forest Service and the Conservation Foundation, the institute was created to formulate policy and develop conservation education programs. Miller explores the institute’s unique fusion of policy makers, scientists, politicians, and activists and their efforts to increase our understanding of and responses to urban and rural forestry, water quality, soil erosion, air pollution, endangered species, land management and planning, and hydraulic fracking. Char Miller is W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and director of the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona College. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism; Public Lands/Public Debates: A Century of Controversy; Out of the Woods:

“Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in PA” Twenty years after the first Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania was published, the Second Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania brings our knowledge of the state’s bird populations up to date, documenting current distribution and changes in status for nearly two hundred bird species. More than two thousand dedicated birdwatchers completed surveys of birds across the state from 2004 to 2009. The data amassed reveal the distribution of each species and show changes in distribution since the publication of the first Atlas. Additionally, a highly trained survey crew carried out bird counts at more than 34,000 locations statewide. These counts tabulated not just species but individual birds as well, in a manner that—for the very first time—enabled precise estimates of the actual statewide populations for more than half of the 190 breeding species detected. In all, more than 1.5 million sightings were compiled for the second Atlas, providing an unprecedented snapshot of

When Katharine Drexel was born in 1858, her grandfather, financier Francis Martin Drexel, had a fortune so vast he was able to provide a loan of sixty million dollars to the Union’s cause during the Civil War. Her uncle and mentor, Anthony, established Drexel University to provide instruction to the working class regardless of race, religion, or gender. Her stepmother was Emma Bouvier whose brother, John, became the great-grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Katharine Drexel’s family were American royalty. As a Philadelphia socialite, “Kitty,” as she was often called, adored formal balls and teas, rowing regattas, and sailing races. She was beautiful, intelligent, and high-spirited. But when her stepmother died in 1883, and her father two years later, a sense of desolation nearly overwhelmed her. She was twenty-seven and in possession of a staggering inheritance. Approached for aid by the Catholic Indian Missions, she surprised her family by giving generously of money and time. It was during thi

“Roads to Gettysburg” The men of the Union and Confederate armies experienced a mix of emotions during Robert E. Lee's first phase of the Gettysburg campaign. Lee's veterans experienced a sense of wonder and excitement as they journeyed north from Fredericksburg, Virginia, while the Federal troops showed resolve and some depression. All were footsore by the long marches and often had little food or water. Roads to Gettysburg: Lee's Invasion of the North, 1863 provides a day-by-day account of the preliminary phases of the campaign and follows the two armies from their positions in central Virginia after the Battle of Chancellorsville to their final arrival on the battlefield. Numerous quotes and maps richly illustrate the armies' activities during this seminal period. Dr. Bradley M. Gottfried holds a Ph.D. in zoology and is currently dean of academic affairs at Montgomery County Community College in Pennsylvania. His lifelong interest in the Civil War has resulted in a number of articles.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson recovers a crucially important—yet almost always overlooked—chapter of George Washington’s life, revealing how Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president. After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the weak central government was unable to raise revenue to pay its debts or reach a consensus on national policy. The states bickered and grew apart. When a Constitutional Convention was established to address these problems, its chances of success were slim. Jefferson, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers realized

“Retreat from Gettysburg” Kent Masterson Brown’s “Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign” offers the first comprehensive history of General Robert E. Lee’s logistical nightmare following the Army of Northern Virginia’s defeat at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. The book follows Lee through enemy territory, moving tens of thousands of troops, many of whom are wounded, and an almost equal amount of livestock, and more than fifty-seven miles of supply trains over mountains, through rain and deep mud, to safety. Gettysburg is placed in a broad historical perspective, situating the battle as the culmination of Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania. Kent Masterson Brown is an attorney in Lexington, Kentucky. He is author of “Cushing of Gettysburg: The Story of a Union Artillery Commander” and editor of “The Civil War in Kentucky.”

Secretive—even reclusive—Russell Bufalino quietly built his organized crime empire in the decades between Prohibition and the Carter presidency. His reach extended far beyond the coal country of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and quaint Amish farms near Lancaster. Bufalino had a hand in global, national, and local politics of the largest American cities, many of its major industries, and controlled the powerful Teamsters Union. His influence also reached the highest levels of Pennsylvania government and halls of Congress, and his legacy left a culture of corruption that continues to this day.
 
A uniquely American saga that spans six decades, The Quiet Don follows Russell Bufalino’s remarkably quiet ascent from Sicilian immigrant to mob soldier to a man described by a United States Senate subcommittee in 1964 as “one of the most ruthless and powerful leaders of the Mafia in the United States.” Matt Birkbeck is an award winning investigative journalist and author of “A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kat