Nestled inconspicuously less than 20 miles east of Philadelphia, the village of Clementon once bore all the markings of an early-20th-century county seat: mills, lumberyards, a thriving charcoal industry, waterworks, locomotive access, and entrepreneurial residents. Incorporated as a borough in 1925, the town�s abundant lakes and the allure of Clementon Lake Park quickly elevated Clementon�s status to a popular recreational hotspot. Vacationers and residents alike recall traffic at the tow...

Anyone wondering what sort of experience prepares one for a future as an engineer may be surprised to learn that it includes delivering newspapers. But as Henry Petroski recounts his youth in 1950s Queens, New York–a borough of handball games and inexplicably numbered streets–he winningly shows how his after-school job amounted to a prep course in practical engineering.Petroksi’s paper was The Long Island Press, whose headlines ran to COP SAVES OLD WOMAN FROM THUG and DiMA...

Games between the Dodgers and Giants are never just another day at the ballpark. Dating back to the late nineteenth century-when the teams embodied the competitive spirit of rival metropolises of New York and Brooklyn-the Giants-Dodgers rivalry gained intensity throughout the early twentieth century. The cheering and jeering continued unabated until 1957, when the clubs backed the moving vans up to the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field, and took their rivalry to new venues in Los Angeles and S...

A historical tour of fun and frolic in the five boroughs—including photos from the good old days.Coney Island is an iconic symbol of turn-of-the-century New York—but many other amusement parks have thrilled the residents of the five boroughs.Strategically placed at the end of trolley lines, railways, public beaches, and waterways, these playgrounds for the rich and poor alike first appeared in 1767. From humble beginnings, they developed into huge sites lik...

New Britain Township, founded in 1723, was a rural farming community originally settled by Welsh Baptists and German Mennonites. This changed dramatically in 1856 when the North Pennsylvania Railroad was built. Two train stations were built in the township and were named Chalfont and New Britain. The villages next to these stations attracted numerous new residents and businesses. The local picnic grove was even converted into an amusement park, which became known as Forest Park. The villag...

A meticulously researched account of one of the North Fork's most infamous crimes: the Wickham Axe Murders of 1854.In the mid-nineteenth century, James Wickham was a wealthy farmer with a large estate in Cutchogue, Long Island. His extensive property included a mansion and eighty acres of farmland that were maintained by a staff of servants. In 1854, Wickham got into an argument with one of his workers, Nicholas Behan, after Behan harassed another employee who refu...

"An energetic study of the famed writer's time in the nation's capital and the loves of his life" ( Washington Independent Review of Books).Walt Whitman was already famous for Leaves of Grass when he journeyed to Washington at the height of the Civil War to find his brother George, a Union officer wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Eventually, Whitman would serve as a volunteer "hospital missionary"—making more than six hundred hospital visi...

In Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore, veteran journalist Michael Olesker writes of Baltimore's melting pot in all its rollicking, sentimental, good-natured, and chaotic essence. The stories come from neighborhood street corners and front stoops, playgrounds and school rooms, churches and synagogues, and families gathered around late-night kitchen tables.The D'Alesandro political dynasty comes to life here, and so do Lenny Moore and Artie Donovan of the legendary Baltimore...

Singer Castle Revisited is a fresh look at this castle�s rich 100-year history with many new stories and photographs of its original owner, Frederick G. Bourne; his daughter Marjorie, who owned the castle for the next 40 years; and Dr. Harold and Eloise Martin. The Bournes were well known for their marvelous collection of yachts and Gold Cup�winning speedboats. Since the release of Singer Castle, the new owners of this historical Thousand Islands landmark have invested nearly $10 million i...

Through innovative interdisciplinary methodologies and fresh avenues of inquiry, the nine essays collected in A Peculiar Mixture endeavor to transform how we understand the bewildering multiplicity and complexity that characterized the experience of German-speaking people in the middle colonies. They explore how the various cultural expressions of German speakers helped them bridge regional, religious, and denominational divides and eventually find a way to partake in America’s em...

Walk along with New York's most celebrated writers on a tour of the city that inspired them in this "evolving portrait of New York through the centuries" ( The New York Observer).ONE OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER'S TOP 10 BOOKS FOR FALLIt's no wonder that New York has always been a magnet city for writers. Manhattan is one of the most walkable cities in the world. But while many novelists, poets, and essayists have enjoyed long walks in New Yor...

Located in the scenic Perkiomen Valley, the adjacent boroughs of Trappe and Collegeville have a rich and fascinating history. Trappe was founded in 1717 by German immigrant Jacob Schrack Sr., who ran a tavern known as the Trap, after which the village was named. Its most famous early residents were Lutheran patriarch Henry Melchior Muhlenberg and his sons Peter, a Revolutionary War general, and Frederick, first speaker of the US House of Representatives. Collegeville, initially known as Fr...