Understanding Philadelphia’s history requires that we understand that nothing is inevitable; history is not made by abstract forces, but by the decisions of real individuals as they conduct their lives. With its insightful analysis and engaging prose, Philadelphia provides an accessible and readable overview of the history of the Quaker City from its founding by William Penn to the deindustrialization and gentrification of the early twenty-first century. Roger Simon asserts that the history of Philadelphia is a story of the efforts to sustain economic prosperity while fulfilling community needs, and the continued tension between those priorities.
Philadelphia devotes considerable attention to the evolving physical development of the city and to the social conditions and class structure of the people. Three dozen maps and illustrations enrich this edition, which has been fully updated and revised to reflect new scholarship on Philadelphia’s role in the post-industrial present and the diverse communities that incorporated women and minorities into the economic and social fabric of the city. 
Published in association with the Pennsylvania Historical Association

Philadelphia: A Brief History (Pennsylvania History)

History

Simon, Roger D.

Americas

Pennsylvania Historical Association

Experience the color, drama, and excitement of Philadelphia as it changes over three hundred years from a colonial port to industrial city and modern metropolis. Such diverse characters as William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Girard, John Wanamaker, Rebecca Gratz, Frank Rizzo, and Ed Rendell march across these pages. The struggles of immigrants and African Americans for a place in the city are recounted, along with the occasional spasms of violence and modern efforts at urban renewal.

Philadelphia A Brief History

Roger D. Simon

Native Americans' Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania History Studies)

Richter, Daniel K.

The Scots Irish were one of early Pennsylvania’s largest non-English immigrant groups. They were stereotyped as frontier ruffians and Indian haters. In The Scots Irish of Early Pennsylvania, historian Judith Ridner insists that this immigrant group was socio-economically diverse. Servants and free people, individuals and families, and political exiles and refugees from Ulster, they not only pioneered new frontier settlements, but also populated the state’s cities—Philadelphia and Pittsburgh—and its towns, such as Lancaster, Easton, and Carlisle. 
Ridner provides a much-overdue synthesis and reassessment of this immigrant group, tracing a century of Scotch-Irish migration from 1720 to 1820. These men and women brought their version of Ulster to the colonies in their fierce commitments to family, community, entrepreneurship, Presbyterianism, republican politics, and higher education. The settlements they founded across the state, including many farms, businesses, meetinghouses, and colleges, ensured that Pennsylvania would be their cradle in America, and these settlements stand as powerful testaments to their legacy to the state’s history and development.

The Scots Irish of Early Pennsylvania: A Varied People

Ridner, Judith A.

In her concise history Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania, Beverly Tomek corrects the long-held notion that slavery in the North was “not so bad” as, or somehow “more humane” than, in the South due to the presence of abolitionists. While the Quaker presence focused on moral and practical opposition to bondage, slavery was ubiquitous. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania was the first state to pass an abolition law in the United States. 
Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania traces this movement from its beginning to the years immediately following the American Civil War. Discussions of the complexities of the state’s antislavery movement illustrate how different groups of Pennsylvanians followed different paths in an effort to achieve their goal. Tomek also examines the backlash abolitionists and Black Americans faced. In addition, she considers the civil rights movement from the period of state reconstruction through the national reconstruction that occurred after the Civil War. 
While the past few decades have shed light on enslavement and slavery in the South, much of the story of northern slavery remains hidden. Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania tells the full and inclusive story of this history, bringing the realities of slavery, abolition, and Pennsylvania's attempt to reconstruct its post-emancipation society.

Slavery and Abolition in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania History)

Tomek, Beverly C.

Cradle of Conservation: An Environmental History of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania History)

Dieterich-Ward, Allen

In this wide-ranging history of sports in Pennsylvania, Karen Guenther leads readers from pre-colonial contests among Native American tribes to the big business of modern professional sports. From amateur competition, to colleges, to the pros, readers will relive championship seasons and struggles with defeat - and along the way, follow the important role of sports in the social, cultural, and economic life of the Commonwealth. The volume also provides a guide to Pennsylvania sports in the movies, in museums, and at historic sites, giving readers the opportunity to follow their favorite teams beyond the stadiums and playing fields. This concise, authoritative survey serves as a gateway for general readers who wish to explore the rich variety of sporting life in Pennsylvania. (2007). 117 pages, illustrations, list of national collegiate champions, and suggestions for further reading

Sports in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania History Studies Series)

Karen Guenther

Each presidential election year, it has become common to hear Pennsylvania described as a "battleground state." How and why did such competitive politics take shape? When did Pennsylvania become so pivotal in electing the president of the United States? In this volume, one of the state's leading political analysts answers these questions by taking readers behind the scenes of convention dramas and onto the campaign trail as national candidates and favorite sons vie for support. This authoritative, richly detailed history by G. Terry Madonna traces the evolution of presidential politics in Pennsylvania from FDR to the twenty-first century.

Pivotal Pennsylvania: Presidential Politics from FDR to the Twenty-First Century (Pennsylvania History Studies Series, No. 31)

MADONNA, G. Terry

"The history of medicine in Pennsylvania is no less vital to understanding the state's past than is its political or industrial history," writes James Higgins in The Health of the Commonwealth, his overview of medicine and public health in the state. Covering the outbreak of yellow fever in 1793 through the 1976 Legionnaire's Disease epidemic, and the challenges of the present day, he shows how Pennsylvania has played a central role in humanity's understanding of--and progress against--disease.Higgins provides close readings of specific medical advances--for instance, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh discovered the polio vaccine--and of disease outbreaks, like AIDS. He examines sanitation and water purification efforts, allopathic medicine and alternative therapies, and the building of the state's tuberculosis sanitaria. Higgins also describes Native American and pre-modern European folk medicine, the rise of public health in the state, and women's roles in both folk and scientific medicine.&nbsp;The Health of the Commonwealth places Pennsylvania's unique contribution to the history of public health and medicine in a larger narrative of health and disease throughout the United States and the world.

The Health of the Commonwealth: A Brief History of Medicine, Public Health, and Disease in Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania History)

Higgins, James E.

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Books by Pennsylvania Historical Association