Books

First published in 1960, this work remains the seminal study of the development of Pennsylvania’s constitution.

An exciting history of the Seven Years’ War (i.e., The French and Indian War) from the perspective of the region in which it began and most affected the early U.S.: the backcountry communities of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Clarke Thomas has compiled a two-hundred-year history of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the first paper published west of the Alleghenies. From the Whiskey Rebellion to the present, the stories the paper covered reveal the history of Pittsburgh and the people who live there.

This reissued hardcover edition thoroughly examines colonial era forts through narrative and illustration. It offers information about their physical attributes as well as why they were built.

A study of twenty wealthy upper-class families during Pittsburgh’s growth into an important commerical and industrial center. It shows how they succeeded in creating the institutions needed to sustain a local aristocracy and possessed the ability to adapt its accumulated advantages to social and economic changes.

Joel Tarr presents a collection of essays examining the tortured environmental history of Pittsburgh, a region blessed with an abundance of natural resources as well as a history of intensive industrial development.

Awarded the 2005 Certificate of Commendation by Choice Magazine

The book assesses how Pittsburgh deindustrialization over the past decades has posed both opportunities and challenges for the city and surrounding tri-state area.

Examines a half-century epoch when planners, public officials, and civic leaders engaged in a dialogue about the meaning of planning and its application for improving life in Pittsburgh. Defines Pittsburgh’s key role in the national urban planning movement.

Pittsburgh in Stages offers the first comprehensive history of theater in Pittsburgh, placing it within the context of cultural development in the city and the history of theater nationally.Lynne Conner details the defining movements of each era and analyzes how public tastes evolved over time. She offers a fascinating study of regional theatrical development and underscores the substantial contribution of regional theater to American theatrical arts.

From the 1905 opening of the wildly popular, eponymous Nickelodeon in the city’s downtown to the outgrowth of nickel theaters in nearly all of its neighborhoods, Pittsburgh proved to be perfect for the movies. Nickelodeon City profiles the major promoters in Pittsburgh, as well as ordinary theater owners, suppliers, and patrons. Aronson examines early film promotion, distribution, and exhibition, and reveals the beginnings of state censorship and the lobbying and manipulation attempted by members of the movie trade.

Toker examines Pittsburgh in its historical context, in its regional setting, and from the street level (leading the reader on a personal tour through every neighborhood). Based on his 1986 classic, Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait, but with a completely revised text and lavishly illustrated with all new photos and maps, Pittsburgh: A New Portrait reveals the true colors of a great American city.

Choice 1990 Outstanding Academic Book, Shadow of the Mills focuses on the private side of industrialization, on how the mills structured the everyday existence of the women, men, and children who lived in their shadows. Through imaginative use of census data, the records of municipal, charitable, and fraternal organizations, and the voices of workers themselves in local newspapers, S.J. Kleinberg builds a detailed picture of the working-class life cycle: marital relationships, the interaction between parents and children, the education and employment prospects of the young, and the lives if the elderly.

A Comprehensive History of Pittsburgh’s Black Population from Colonial Times to the 1930s

Winner of the 1996 Phi Alpha Theta Best First Book Award Killing Time examines the cultural history of southwestern Pennsylvania through the lens of leisure activities. Scott Martin details how leisure activities were integral in the formation of class, gender, ethnic, and community identities.

The first history of The Carnegie Museums and Library of Pittsburgh, a cultural conglomeration that has served millions of people since its inception in 1895. Gangewere details the political turmoil, budgetary constraints, and cultural tides that have influenced the caretakers and the collections along the way. He provides individual histories of the library, music hall, museums, and science center, and describes the importance of each as an educational and research facility.