There is a superstition that if an emptied theater is ever left completely dark, a ghost will take up residence. To prevent this, a single "ghost light" is left burning at center stage after the audience and all of the actors and musicians have gone home. Fra...

The future of the valley of the upper Allegheny River was predetermined in the 1930s with talks of flood control. As time drew nearer for construction of Kinzua Dam, even the last protesters conceded their world was doomed. It was not the end of the world, but it was...

In Up from Zero, Paul Goldberger, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the inside story of the quest to rebuild one of the most important symbolic sites in the world, the sixteen acres where the towers of the former World Trade Center stood. A story of power, politi...

Anthracite Reds, Vol. 2 , is a documentary history of Communists in the Pennsylvania hard coal fields during the Great Depression decade, the

The history of the Thomas family mirrors the history, struggles, and successes of America. Starting in the 1600s, my ancestors came from Europe and helped settle and build the country, fought in the battles that defined the nation, lost their jobs in the Great Depres...

When John Costello was hired as the new Director of Public Works for the small island town of Brigantine, NJ, he was expected to maintain the status quo and enjoy the ride at taxpayers' expense. Costello instead began an earnest effort to clean up the city, which res...

The Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania is an area rich in history, none of which is more fascinating than in its origin. Settled not by the people of Pennsylvania, but rather of Connecticut due to conflicting land grants, it produced a titanic struggle between the Yankee...

In his provocative and compelling new book, America’s most widely read and most influential commentator casts his gimlet eye on our singular nation. Moving far beyond the strict confines of politics, George F. Will offers a fascinating look at the people, stori...

A New York Times Notable Book One of the Best Books of the Year The Washington Post • The Cleveland Plain-Dealer • Rocky Mountain News In this brilliant, lively, and eye-opening investigation, Tom Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limit...

Gateway to the Clouds is a story of the Scranton, Dunmore, Moosic Lake Railroad. From narrow and standard gauge steam railroading to the electric trolley, readers will ride the pages of this interesting segment (1902-1926) of Northeastern Pennsylvania history. The au...

The Riveting Story of the Federal City and the Men Who Built It In 1814, British troops invaded Washington, consuming President Madison’s hastily abandoned dinner before setting his home and the rest of the city ablaze. The White House still bears scorch and s...

In an unnamed New York-based company, the employees are getting restless as everything around them unravels. There’s Pru, the former grad student turned spreadsheet drone; Laars, the hysteric whose work anxiety stalks him in his tooth-grinding dreams; and Jack ...

Amid all the stories of tragedy and heroism on September 11, there is one tale that has yet to be told–the gripping account of ordinary men and women braving the inferno at the Pentagon to rescue friends and co-workers, save the nation’s military headquar...

American entrepreneurs, corporate tycoons, and financiers are plotting what they do best—creating new industries that change the world and making billions in the process—a plot that will ultimately save the planet. The Plot to Save the Planet is an ill...

• How many smells are there? And how many molecules would it take to create every smell in nature, from roses to stinky feet? • Who was the bigger scent freak: the perfume-obsessed Richard Wagner or Emily Dickinson, with her creepy passion for flowers? ...

Discover the formula used by twenty-one of the world’s most extraordinary leaders to make consistent and smart decisions. How do the wise decide and lead businesses and organizations to great success is the question Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski posed to...

An engaging and remarkably dramatic account of the rise and fall of New York's new media district and how it transformed the city's economy and culture.

“The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the human race has always outstripped our capacity to harness it. Crowdsourcing ­corrects that—but in doing so, it also unleashes the forces of creative destruction.” —From Crowdsourci...

Here are two acclaimed memoirs in one remarkable volume. In an extraordinarily compelling voice, Dorothy Gallagher tells stories taking us from her parents’ beginnings in the Ukraine to her own childhood in 1940s New York, through the many adventures of her ext...

When real money is at stake, it tends to clarify the mind, and for over a decade, Anne-Marie Fink has had literally billions of dollars resting on her assessments of companies. As an equity analyst and professional investor, she has been charged with understanding wh...