Two Hundred Years of Personalities and Events, 1750–1950
Sheldon Spear
This book offers a consciously eclectic approach to the rich history of Pennsylvania in the period from 1740 to 1950. Combining original research with syntheses of relevant work by other historians, Pennsylvania Histories seeks to appeal to both professional historians and general readers by presenting a range of significant individuals, groups, and events that are likely to be less familiar to audiences interested in the history of Pennsylvania. The Moravians, for example, emerge as a denomination whose involvement in proselytization activities sets them apart from the quietism of the Amish and other well-known sects. Although the book concentrates on Pennsylvania, the subject matter is also germane to wider issues in the areas of economics, race and ethnicity, religion, and gender studies. Among the many topics discussed, Pennsylvania Histories considers the French and British refugees who settled near the Susquehanna River during the late eighteenth century, the burning of the town of Chambersburg by Confederate raiders in 1864, and the semi-public executions in Pennsylvania towns that persisted into the early twentieth century.
The Final Days of Edgar Allan Poe, by David F. Gaylin, has been "recommended for all readers" by Choice Reviews and was listed in their Community College Top 75 titles.
"This engaging collection redresses the balance of Poe studies to consider his work from the perspective of women, those in his works and those reading them. . . . [It] offers a welcome emphasis on the irrepressibility of women in his work who ‘die but do not stay dead’"
Very much in the spirit of Robertson's many impacts on our field, this collection opens a range of fascinating apertures into the medieval literary world that promise to be useful, both to fellow scholars and in a variety of literature classrooms.
New Directions in Medieval Mystical and Devotional Literature not only makes a fitting tribute to a beloved scholar and teacher; it constitutes a significant contribution to the field in its own right. The essays in this beautifully presented book will be essential reading for anyone interested in late-medieval vernacular theology and its reception, both in England and beyond.
--Nicholas Watson, professor of English, Harvard University
Dolan and Labbe’s wide-ranging yet cohesive collection of essays offers a comprehensive and convincing breadth that succeeds in its mission of placing Charlotte Smith. Beyond Smithian scholarship, the volume comes at a prescient time.
--Heather Heckman-McKenna University of Missouri-Columbia
Bowden delves into each case study so expansively that at the end of reading the book, the reader has been immersed in many different eighteenth-century cultural worlds. This is an immensely learned and valuable book that dares to be different and, as a result, breaks new ground.
-- Marion Turner, Jesus College, University of Oxford
Our Osage Hills: Toward an Osage Ecology and Tribalography of the Early Twentieth Century is a significant work. Snyder uses Mathews’ columns as a window into Mathews’ understanding of the Osage, its geology, its flora and fauna, as well as its human inhabitants.
