First Pennsylvanians

The Archaeology of Native Americans in Pennsylvania is the definitive reference to the rich artifacts representing 14,000 years of cultural evolution and includes environmental studies, descriptions and illustrations of artifacts and features, settlement pattern studies, and recommendations for directions of further research.

Carr and Moeller provide a broad and accessible overview of the archaeological record of Native Americans in Pennsylvania. The chapters examine the environment, social groups, subsistence and settlement patterns of these Native American groups and describe how these factors affected the populations and cultures of Pennsylvania's early inhabitants.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

The political party system in the United States has periodically undergone major realignments at various critical junctures in the country’s history. The Civil War boosted the Republican Party’s fortunes and catapulted it into majority status at the national level, a status that was further solidified during the Populist realignment in the 1890s. Starting in the 1930s, however, Roosevelt’s New Deal reversed the parties’ fortunes, bringing the Democratic Party back to national power, and this realignment was further modified by the “culture wars” beginning in the mid-1960s. Each of these realignments occasioned shifts in the electorate’s support for the major parties, and they were superimposed on each other in a way that did not negate entirely the consequences of the preceding realignments. The story of realignment is further complicated by the variations that occurred within individual states whose own particular political legacies, circumstances, and personalities resulted in modulations and modifications of the patterns playing out at the national level. In this book, Renée Lamis investigates how Pennsylvania experienced this series of realignments, with special attention to the period since 1960. She uses a wealth of data from a wide variety of sources to produce an analysis that allows her to trace the evolution of electoral behavior in the Keystone State in a narrative that is accessible to a broad range of readers. Her account helps explain why Senator Arlen Specter was reelected whereas Senator Rick Santorum was not, and why Pennsylvania Republicans have been highly successful in major statewide elections in an era when Democratic presidential standard-bearers have regularly carried the state. Overall, her book constitutes a gold mine of information and interpretation for political junkies as well as scholars who want to know more about how national-level politics plays out within individual states.

King Charles II of England gave Pennsylvania to Quaker William Penn in repayment for a loan that Penn’s father had made to the king. The king probably thought he was accomplishing more than just paying a debt when he made the land grant. It was a way to get rid of some Quakers, whom he considered troublesome. Quakers did flock to Pennsylvania to settle, but so did people from many other religious groups. All faiths were welcome in Penn’s colony. The new city of Philadelphia prospered. Settlers fanned out to the west to build farms and towns. They shipped their products to Philadelphia and England. By the time of the American Revolution, Pennsylvania was considered the heart of the colonies. Philadelphia hosted the First and Second Continental Congresses, where the Declaration of Independence was crafted. And from the Pennsylvania State House, the Liberty Bell rang out the news of declared independence.

compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the state of Pennsylvania ... Co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission and the University of Pennsylvania.