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"On the Edge of Freedom" with David Smith Feb 10, 2016

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"On the Edge of Freedom"
In "On the Edge of Freedom," David Smith breaks new ground by illuminating the unique development of antislavery sentiment in south central Pennsylvania—a border region of a border state with a complicated history of slavery, antislavery activism, and unequal freedom. During the antebellum decades every single fugitive slave escaping by land east of the Appalachian Mountains had to pass through the region, where they faced both significant opportunities and substantial risks. While the hundreds of fugitives traveling through south central Pennsylvania (defined as Adams, Franklin, and Cumberland counties) during this period were aided by an effective Underground Railroad, they also faced slave catchers and informers. "Underground" work such as helping fugitive slaves appealed to border antislavery activists who shied away from agitating for immediate abolition in a region with social, economic, and kinship ties to the South. And, as early antislavery protests met fierce resistance, area activists adopted a less confrontational approach, employing the more traditional political tools of the petition and legal action.

Smith traces the victories of antislavery activists in south central Pennsylvania, including the achievement of a strong personal liberty law and the aggressive prosecution of kidnappers who seized innocent African Americans as fugitives. He also documents how their success provoked Southern retaliation and the passage of a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. The Civil War then intensified the debate over fugitive slaves, as hundreds of escaping slaves, called "contrabands," sought safety in the area, and scores were recaptured by the Confederate army during the Gettysburg campaign.

David Smith received his Ph.D. in American History from the Pennsylvania State University in 2006. A social historian of the Civil War period, his research centers on the intersection of war, societal conflict, and race. He currently works as a consultant to the Department of Defense.

"Native Americans in the Susquehanna River Valley, Past and Present" with David Minderhout Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

This first volume in the new Stories of the Susquehanna Valley series describes the Native American presence in the Susquehanna River Valley, a key crossroads of the old Eastern Woodlands between the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay in northern Appalachia. Combining archaeology, history, cultural anthropology, and the study of contemporary Native American issues, contributors describe what is known about the Native Americans from their earliest known presence in the valley to the contact era with Europeans. They also explore the subsequent consequences of that contact for Native peoples, including the removal, forced or voluntary, of many from the valley, in what became a chilling prototype for attempted genocide across the continent. Euro-American history asserted that there were no native people left in Pennsylvania (the center of the Susquehanna watershed) after the American Revolution. But with revived Native American cultural consciousness in the late twentieth century, Pennsylvanians of native ancestry began to take pride in and reclaim their heritage. This book also tells their stories, including efforts to revive Native cultures in the watershed, and Native perspectives on its ecological restoration.

David Minderhout is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania. In addition to his work with Native Americans in Pennsylvania, he has conducted research on creole languages in the southern Caribbean, African American English in the Washington, D.C., public schools, and Pennsylvania German traditional medicine. He is the coauthor of Invisible Indians: Native Americans in Pennsylvania and numerous scholarly articles.

"Murder in the Stacks" with David DeKok Feb 10, 2016

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On Nov. 28, 1969, Betsy Aardsma, a 22-year-old graduate student in English at Penn State, was stabbed to death in the stacks of Pattee Library at the university's main campus in State College. For more than forty years, her murder went unsolved, though detectives with the Pennsylvania State Police and local citizens worked tirelessly to find her killer. The mystery was eventually solved—after the death of the murderer. This book will reveal the story behind what has been a scary mystery for generations of Penn State students and explain why the Pennsylvania State Police failed to bring her killer to justice. More than a simple true crime story, the book weaves together the events, culture, and attitudes of the late 1960s, memorializing Betsy Aardsma and her time and place in history.

David DeKok is the author of Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire (Globe Pequot Press), which previously appeared as Unseen Danger. A former award-winning investigative reporter for the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he has been a guest on Fresh Air and The Diane Rehm Show. In 2009, he appeared at length in Episode 6 of the History Channel's Life After People series discussing Centralia, Pennsylvania.

"Mr. President" with Harlow Giles Unger Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

Although the framers gave the president little authority, Washington knew whatever he did would set precedents for generations of his successors. To ensure their ability to defend the nation, he simply ignored the Constitution when he thought it necessary and reshaped the presidency into what James Madison called a monarchical presidency. Modern scholars call it the "imperial presidency." A revealing new look at the birth of American government, "Mr. President" describes George Washington's assumption of office in a time of continual crisis, as riots, rebellion, internecine warfare, and attacks by foreign enemies threatened to destroy the new nation. Drawing on rare documents and letters, Unger shows how Washington combined political cunning, daring, and sheer genius to seize ever-widening powers to solve each crisis. In a series of brilliant, but unconstitutional, maneuvers, Washington forced Congress to cede control of the four pillars of executive power: war, finance, foreign affairs, and law enforcement. Then, in the absence of Congress, he sent troops to fight Indian wars, crush tax revolts, and put down threats of secession by three states. Constantly weighing preservation of the Union against preservation of individual liberties and states' rights, Washington assumed more power with each crisis. Often only a breath away from reestablishing the tyranny he pledged to destroy in the Revolutionary War, he imposed law and order across the land while ensuring individual freedom and self-government.

A veteran journalist, broadcaster, educator, and historian, Harlow Giles Unger is a former Distinguished Visiting Fellow in American History at Mount Vernon and the author of twenty books, including six biographies of America's Founding Fathers and three other histories of the early republic.

"Mob Files" with George Anastasia Feb 10, 2016

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For more than 25 years as a reporter with the Philadelphia Inquirer George Anastasia has made tracking the American Mafia his regular beat, writing investigates pieces, profiles and slices of underworld life. Mobfiles is a compilation of his best work -- stories told from street level and often based on insights and access provided by investigators, prosecutors and the mobsters themselves. Mobfiles provides the true stories around which classics like The Godfather and The Sopranos have been built.

George Anastasia, a veteran reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is the grandson of Sicilian immigrants who settle in South Philadelphia. He is the author of five books of nonfiction, including Blood and Honor, which Jimmy Breslin called the "best gangster book ever written." He has won many awards for investigative journalism and magazine writing.

"The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes" with Walt Koken & Clare Milliner Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

"Old-Time" music could be loosely described as that body of music containing fiddle tunes, banjo tunes, ballads, and ensemble pieces in various instrumental combinations including the guitar, mandolin, autoharp, dulcimer, mouth harp, jaw harp, dobro, piano, and other related non-electrified instruments. "Old-Time" music has often been preserved before the industrial age in the relative isolation of the Appalachian mountains. "The Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes" contains transcriptions of over 1400 fiddle tunes. The book includes an artist profiles section with brief bios of the 347 fiddlers/bands represented in the book. A majority of these fiddlers were born before 1900. The collection also contains a comments section with interesting information about the tunes and fiddlers.

Walt Koken began playing the five string banjo in 1959. He has played the banjo and fiddle in a variety of groups including "The Busted Toe Mudthumpers," "Fat City," "The Highwoods Stringband," and the "Orpheus Supertones." In the late 70's, he retired from the old-time music business and worked as a carpenter. In the early 1990's, he began playing banjo again, released several CD's, and formed Mudthumper Music. The company is dedicated to the preservation of non-electrified, fiddle-banjo oriented music.

Clare Milliner grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania, not far from the original site of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music's annual Mountain Music Festival. She studied piano and violin, but when she heard fiddle tunes at the Old Fiddler's Picnic at Lenape Park near her home, it changed her approach to playing. She plays often for square dances, usually with the "Cacklin' Hens and Roosters Too," and she and Walt play double fiddles, as well as fiddle-banjo duets.

"Making Good Neighbors" with Abigail Perkiss Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

In the 1950s and 1960s, as the white residents, real estate agents, and municipal officials of many American cities fought to keep African Americans out of traditionally white neighborhoods, Philadelphia's West Mount Airy became one of the first neighborhoods in the nation where residents came together around a community-wide mission toward intentional integration. As West Mount Airy experienced transition, homeowners fought economic and legal policies that encouraged white flight and threatened the quality of local schools, seeking to find an alternative to racial separation without knowing what they would create in its place. In Making Good Neighbors, Abigail Perkiss tells the remarkable story of West Mount Airy, drawing on archival research and her oral history interviews with residents to trace their efforts, which began in the years following World War II and continued through the turn of the twenty-first century.

Abigail Perkiss is Assistant Professor of History at Kean University and lives in West Mount Airy.

"Making Ideas Matter" with Dwight Evans Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

Making Ideas Matter is a primer on mobilizing political power to achieve enlightened goals in a democracy. This is a book about how good politicians can compromise without abandoning moral principles. This is a book that will inspire future political leaders to hold on to their idealism rather than spiral into a cynical distrust of politics and government. Pennsylvania State Rep. Dwight Evans shows us that politics is a noble art, and with enough research, hard work and knowledge of the legislative process, politics can be the art of the possible.

Dwight Evans is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He has represented the 203rd District (Philadelphia County) since 1981.

"Louis I. Kahn" with Charles Dagit Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

Few people in the history of art and architecture have planted a seed of inspiration that grew to become a towering oak of lasting influence. There are those, particularly colleagues and students of Louis I. Kahn, who would say that he was one of these people. Certainly Kahn was one of the foremost architects of the twentieth century, designing such famous landmarks as the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; and the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.

In this commemorative volume, Charles E. Dagit, Jr. shows the power and influence that Kahn displayed at the University of Pennsylvania department of architecture in the 1960s. Since Dagit knew Kahn personally, this is a factual history as well as a glimpse into Kahn's personal wisdom and humanity.

Charles E. Dagit, Jr. taught at Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University, where he is now a thesis advisor as well as conductor of a seminar on American Architectural History. Awarded the American Institute of Architects Pennsylvania's Medal of Distinction, his work has been published in Progressive Architect, Interiors Magazine, and Yale Perspecta.

"Lost Triumph" with Tom Carhart Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

"Lost Triumph: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg and Why It Failed"
Conventional wisdom holds that General Robert E. Lee risked everything at Gettysburg. Victory would have virtually ensured Confederate triumph in the war, forcing the Union into submission. In "Lost Triumph: Lee's Real Plan at Gettysburg and Why It Failed" West Point graduate and military historian Tom Carhart asserts that Lee had an as-yet undiscovered plan for victory at Gettysburg. Drawing from institutional records, official reports, and private correspondence, Carhart painstakingly recreates the events of those crucial days, shedding new light on Lee's dramatic failure.

Tom Carhart has been a lawyer and historian or the Department of the Army in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of West Point, a twice-wounded Vietnam veteran, and has earned a Ph.D. in American and Military History from Princeton University. He authored four previous books of military history and is Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Mary Washington near his home in the Washington DC area.

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