This is a study of a declining lower middle class white neighborhood, Kensington, in Philadelphia, a neighborhood of blue collar Poles, Italians, and Irish, and a prime example of the pathologies and the fierce pride, the grievances and prejudices, the true-blue Americanism and profound alienation to be found in the Whitetowns of urban America. After some historical background on Kensington and some sociological perspectives on various Whitetowns of today, the most substantial segment of the account deals with the stresses, strains, and shortcomings of Kensington's schools (although the Philadelphia school system is predominantly black, the poorest reading and arithmetic scores are in Kensington) and the resistance of the residents to reform (reform is generally equated with racial inundation). Binzen, Urban Affairs Editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin, believes in first-hand investigation and first-person reportage. Not only did he interview and analyze Whitetowners, stroll around their streets and visit in their homes, he also took upon himself the formidable task of teaching fourth grade at old, obsolete Elkins Elementary School. Two days were enough for him to chuck that project, but his continued observation of teachers and principals, students and parents in action both in Whitetown and Blacktown, Philadelphia, form the basis for his perceptive commentary on the particular educational problems of Kensington in the context of recent developments in both public and parochial schools in Philadelphia and elsewhere. Binzen's study goes far toward answering the complaint of a third-generation Polish-American Whitetowner: ""No one listens to us and our problems, no one cares about us or appreciates the contributions we have made to American life.

Whitetown, U. S. A.

BINZEN, PETER

Vintage Book

Aaron A. Gold once described his Oxford First Corporation as a company "started by nobody, with nothing."Yet from this unpromising beginning, he built a small-loan business in North Philadelphia into a $100 million company and gained a national reputation for sagacity in consumer finance.In Odyssey of Gold, completed shortly before his death in 1993, Gold explains how he did it. His story makes wonderful reading both as a how-to-succeed business book and as one man's often hilarious encounters with the good, the bad, and the weird in modern life.

Odyssey of Gold

Business & Money

Gold, Aaron A.

Business Development & Entrepreneurship

Cornwall Books

For over 75 years, the Philadelphia Bulletin was not only the dominant newspaper in the city of Philadelphia, it was also the largest evening newspaper in all of North America. When it folded in 1982, just months before its 135th birthday, the city--and the country--lost one of the last remaining vestiges of "old-time" journalism, a family-owned paper which reached the height of its success before the era of computers, wire services, and fax machines. Now, on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Bulletin's founding, sixteen of the paper's journalists look back upon their experiences and life in its newsroom.

Nearly Everybody Read It: Snapshots of the Philadelphia Bulletin

History

Americas

Camino Books

It took ten years of laborious planning and exhaustive negotiations to create the mammoth Penn Central Railroad, the largest railroad in United States history. When the leviathan was finally born of a merger between the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads on February 1, 1968, the event was hailed as a great day for railroading. But the baby giant survived only 367 days. The crash of the Penn Central set a new record, this time for the largest bankruptcy the United States had ever seen. 
"The Wreck of the Penn Central" provides a close-up view of the events that brought the Big Train to bankruptcy court--over-regulation, subsidized competition, big labor featherbedding, greed, corporate back-stabbing, stunning incompetence, and, yes, even a little sex.

The Wreck of the Penn Central

Daughen, Joseph R.

Biography & History

Beard Books

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