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"The Life of Louis Kahn: You Say to Brick" with Wendy Lesser May 30, 2017

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Wendy Lesser's "You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn" is a major exploration of the architect's life and work. Born in Estonia 1901 and brought to America in 1906, the architect Louis Kahn grew up in poverty in Philadelphia. By the time of his mysterious death in 1974, he was widely recognized as one of the greatest architects of his era. Yet this enormous reputation was based on only a handful of masterpieces, all built during the last fifteen years of his life. Kahn, perhaps more than any other twentieth-century American architect, was a "public" architect. Rather than focusing on corporate commissions, he devoted himself to designing research facilities, government centers, museums, libraries, and other structures that would serve the public good. But this warm, captivating person, beloved by students and admired by colleagues, was also a secretive man hiding under a series of masks.

"Africans in New Sweden: The Untold Story" with Abdullah Muhammad May 15, 2017

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Historian Abdullah R. Muhammad examines a previously little-known and virtually untold aspect of Delaware's history—the hidden role of Africans in the often brutal mercantile expansionism by European colonizers in the 17th century. Swedish and Finnish communities on the East Coast, called New Sweden, played a significant role in forming the foundation upon which Delaware was eventually built.

"Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mob Boss Ralph Natale" with Larry McShane and Dan Pearson Apr 17, 2017

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As the last Don of the Philadelphia mob, Ralph Natale, the first-ever mob boss to turn state's evidence, provides an insider's perspective on the mafia. Natale's reign atop the Philadelphia and New Jersey underworlds brought the region's mafia back to prominence in the 1990s. Smart, savvy, and articulate, Natale came up in the mob and saw first-hand as it hatched its plan to control Atlantic City's casino unions. Later on, after spending 16 years in prison, he reclaimed the family as his own after a bloody mob war that left bodies scattered across South Philly. He forged connections around the country, invigorated the family with more allies than it had in two decades, and achieved a status within the mob never seen before or since until he was betrayed by his men and decided to testify against them in a stunning turn of events. With the full cooperation of Natale, New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane and producer Dan Pearson uncover the deadly reign of the last great mob boss of Philadelphia, a tale that covers a half-century of mob lore.

"Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family" with Jennifer Lin Apr 10, 2017

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Veteran journalist Jennifer Lin takes readers from remote nineteenth-century mission outposts to Philadelphia and to the thriving house churches and cathedrals of today's China. The Lin family—and the book's central figure, the Reverend Lin Pu-chi—offer witness to China's tumultuous past, up to and beyond the betrayals and madness of the Cultural Revolution, when the family's resolute faith led to years of suffering. Forgiveness and redemption bring the story full circle. With its sweep of history and the intimacy of long-hidden family stories, Shanghai Faithful offers a fresh look at Christianity in China—past, present, and future.

"Frontier Country" with Patrick Spero Apr 04, 2017

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In "Frontier Country," Patrick Spero addresses one of the most important and controversial subjects in American history: the frontier. Countering the modern conception of the American frontier as an area of expansion, Spero employs the eighteenth-century meaning of the term to show how colonists understood it as a vulnerable, militarized boundary. The Pennsylvania frontier, Spero argues, was constituted through conflicts not only between colonists and Native Americans but also among neighboring British colonies. These violent encounters created what Spero describes as a distinctive "frontier society" on the eve of the American Revolution that transformed the once-peaceful colony of Pennsylvania into a "frontier country."

"French and Indian War: War in the Peaceable Kingdom: The Kittanning Raid of 1756" with Brady Crytzer Mar 27, 2017

Show notes

On the morning of September 8, 1756, a band of about three hundred volunteers of a newly created Pennsylvania militia led by Lt. Col. John Armstrong crept slowly through the western Pennsylvania brush. The night before they had reviewed a plan to quietly surround and attack the Lenape, or Delaware, Indian village of Kittanning. The Pennsylvanians had learned that several prominent Delaware who had led recent attacks on frontier settlements as well as a number of white prisoners were at the village. Seeking reprisal, Armstrong's force successfully assaulted Kittanning, killing one of the Delaware they sought, but causing most to flee—along with their prisoners. Armstrong then ordered the village burned. The raid did not achieve all of its goals, but it did lead to the Indians relocating their villages further away from the frontier settlements. However, it was a major victory for those Pennsylvanians—including Quaker legislators—who believed the colony must be able to defend itself from outside attack, whether from the French, Indians, or another colony.

"The Martin Guitar Archives" with Dick Boak Mar 20, 2017

Show notes

The Martin Archives is a unique inside look into C.F. Martin & Co.'s reign as America's oldest and most revered guitarmaker – viewed through a selection of images, correspondence, documents, and reproduced artifacts chosen from some 700,000 items the company has amassed over nearly two centuries. Many of these have lain unseen in the Martins' attic or vault for generations. From the concert halls of the pre-Civil War United States to the Grand Ole Opry stage to Woodstock, Coachella, and beyond, Martin's instruments have been on hand to give voice to the human spirit. The Martin Archives offers insights into those instruments and the persons who made them, as well as the times the Martins lived through. While some guitarmakers predate the advent of the business computer, Martin predates the typewriter, electric lights, and even the steam locomotive, and its archives reveal what an interesting ride that's been. Dick Boak is the director of the museum, archives, and special projects for the Martin Guitar Company.

Description courtesy of Hal Leonard Books.

"Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky and the Crisis in Penn State Athletics: Wounded Lions" with Ronald A. Smith Mar 13, 2017

Show notes

In Wounded Lions, acclaimed sport historian and longtime Penn State professor Ronald A. Smith heavily draws from university archives to answer the How? and Why? at the heart of the scandal. The Sandusky case was far from the first example of illegal behavior related to the football program or the university's attempts to suppress news of it. As Smith shows, decades of infighting among administrators, alumni, trustees, faculty, and coaches established policies intended to protect the university, and the football team considered synonymous with its name, at all costs.

"A Civil War Captain and His Lady" with Gene Barr Mar 08, 2017

Show notes

More than 150 years ago, 27-year-old Irish immigrant Josiah Moore met 19-year-old Jennie Lindsay, a member of one of Peoria, Illinois's most prominent families. The Civil War had just begun, Josiah was the captain of the 17th Illinois Infantry, and his war would be a long and bloody one. Their courtship and romance, which came to light in a rare and unpublished series of letters, forms the basis of Gene Barr's memorable "A Civil War Captain and His Lady: A True Story of Love, Courtship, and Combat."

"The Life & Songs of Stephen Foster" with JoAnne O'Connell Feb 28, 2017

Show notes

The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster offers an engaging reassessment of the life, politics, and legacy of the misunderstood father of American music. Once revered the world over, Foster's plantation songs, like "Old Folks at Home" and "My Old Kentucky Home," fell from grace in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement due to their controversial lyrics. Foster embraced the minstrel tradition for a brief time, refining it and infusing his songs with sympathy for slaves, before abandoning the genre for respectable parlor music. The youngest child in a large family, he grew up in the shadows of a successful older brother and his president brother-in-law, James Buchanan, and walked a fine line between the family's conservative politics and his own pro-Lincoln sentiments. Foster lived most of his life just outside of industrial, smoke-filled Pittsburgh and wrote songs set in a pastoral South—unsullied by the grime of industry but tarnished by the injustice of slavery.

JoAnne O'Connell has a background in history and classical vocal music. She earned her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh where she began researching her revisionist biography of the Pittsburgh born composer Stephen Collins Foster. She has taught at colleges and universities in Pennsylvania and Maryland, and currently spends her time researching and writing.

Description courtesy of Rowman & Littlefield.

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