Books

An examination of the relationship between African Americans and the environment in U.S. history, “To Love the Wind and the Rain” contains essays covering topics such as slavery, religion, the turpentine industry, gardening, outdoor recreation, women and politics.

Using five case studies of redevelopment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gregory Crowley addresses important issues in urban redevelopment and provides a framework through which to view future contention.

Between Camelots is about the struggle to forge relationships and the spaces that are left when that effort falls short. The stories are not only about loss and fear, but also about the courage that drives us all to continue to reach out to the people around us.

Winner of the 2005 Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Outstanding Achievement Award from Wisconsin Library Association, and the New Writers Award from Great Lakes College Association.

Richard E. Miller questions the current views of the relationship between the humanities and daily life, and proposes that, in the face of increasing violence, the humanities should become more important, not less.

Winner of the 2006 CEE James H. Britton Award

Winner of 2004 Cave Canem Poetry Prize Drawing her inspiration from she calls her “waking”, Amber Flora Thomas presents poems that depict humanity’s struggle to overcome its own flaws.

Replete with both biographical and analytical information, Howard Bossen’s book reintroduces the important work of photographer Luke Swank.

Winner of an Outstanding Academic Title Award from Choice Magazine (2006).

By examining the interpretation of a wide variety of materials, such as works in translation and literary fiction, Pol Vandevelde presents a new approach to interpretation that reconciles the possibility of multiple interpretations with the need to consider an author’s intent.

Winner of 2004 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.

These artful, yet accessible poems are concerned with the body, desire, anxiety, and obsession—how what we want redeems and isolates us. They urge complete exploration of one’s physical and mental selves as a means to remain alive in the material world.

This text examines the history of the Great Lakes Basin in relation to its importance as a place of social, economic, and political interaction between the United States and Canada.

Winner of the 2006 Albert B. Corey Prize from the American Historical Association.

Available in Canada through University of Calgary Press

Martin Greenberg chronicles the history of citizen volunteerism by examining the nature and purpose of volunteer police units in America since 1620. By considering these organizations with a contemporary perspective he provides insight into how the country might provide for a safe and secure future.

Winner of the 2006 George Washington Honor Medal from Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge.

A dialogue between father and son, combining prose and poetry, that uses fishing as a shared activity and a metaphor, to address the universal challenge of raising good children. The lessons they share have the power to save a generation of young black men.

This collection follows the physical and emotional struggles of a young boy growing up in 1950s America as he attempts to understand himself and the world around him.

Winner of 2004 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, and the 2006 Milton Kessler Poetry Book Award.

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

A special reissue commemorating the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War, Guns at the Forks tells about the dramatic parts five successive forts, particularly Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt, play in the war between 1750 and 1760. O’Meara’s narrative also relates the larger story of the French and Indian War and its role in the global conflict that altered the course of world events.

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.