Books

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.

Race and Renaissance presents the first history of African American life in Pittsburgh after World War II. It examines the origins and significance of the second Great Migration, the persistence of Jim Crow into the postwar years, the second ghetto, the contemporary urban crisis, the civil rights and Black Power movements, and the Million Man and Million Woman marches, among other topics.

Dick Thornburgh, former Governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Attorney General under Presidents Reagan and Bush, reveals painful details of his personal life, including the 1960 automobile accident that claimed the life of his first wife and permanently disabled his infant son. He presents a frank analysis of the challenges of raising a family as a public figure, and tells the moving story of his personal and political crusade that culminated in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

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.

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.

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.

Angelique Bamberg provides the first book-length study of the community of Chatham Village in Pittsburgh. She establishes its historical significance to urban planning and reveals the complex development process, social significance, and breakthrough construction and landscaping techniques that shaped this idyllic community.

Winner of the 2007 Art Libraries Society of North America Worldwide Books Award

Examines Pittsburgh’s built environment as it relates to the city’s unique topography—man’s response to an unruly terrain of hills, hollows, and rivers. Adopting a spectator’s viewpoint, Aurand studies three “terrestrial rooms” and their development over time.

Vicky A. Clark presents a comprehensive study of the work of iconic Pittsburgh artist Robert Qualters. Complimented by over eighty color images, Clark shows Qualters to be a remarkable visual storyteller, who infuses allegory, narrative, and memory into his kinetic images filled with bold brush strokes and fauvist colors.

Robert Qualters has been named Pennsylvania Artist of the Year for 2014, as part of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts

New in Paper

Allegheny City, known today as Pittsburgh’s North Side, was the third-largest city in Pennsylvania when it was controversially annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1907. Dan Rooney, a longtime North Side resident, joins local historian Carol Peterson in creating this highly engaging history of the cultural, industrial, and architectural achievements of Allegheny City from its humble beginnings until the present day. The authors cover the history of the city from its origins as a colonial outpost to its emergence alongside Pittsburgh as one of the most important industrial cities in the world. Supplemented by historic and contemporary photos, the authors take the reader on a fascinating and often surprising street-level tour of this colorful, vibrant, and proud place.

The first comprehensive study of Scheibler, it includes 125 historic and contemporary photographs and drawings, all of Scheibler’s known projects—including many not recorded in any other published source—and a selected bibliography.

Formerly titled An Uncommon Passage: Traveling through History on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, this is a revised and updated version. This book reveals the historic importance of the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, now a scenic biking tand hiking trail that stretches from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, D.C. Through beautiful contemporary photos, historic illustrations and a compelling narrative, the rich history of the trail comes to life for visitors (and everyone) to enjoy.

The Johnstown Girls is a heartrending tale of twin sisters separated by the 1889 flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Kathleen George masterfully blends a factual history of the flood into her story of two sisters, whose search for each other over the course of one hundred years unfolds after their lives were sent careening down different paths.

Today, the movement for more sustainable practices is rising in Pittsburgh. Against a backdrop of Marcellus shale gas development, initiatives emerge for a sustainable and resilient response to the climate change and pollution challenges of the twenty-first century. People, institutions, communities, and corporations in Pittsburgh are leading the way to a more sustainable future.Examining the experience of a single city, with vast social and political complexities and a long industrial history, the case studies in this book respond to ethical challenges and give specific examples of successful ways forward.