Overview
Each of the nearly 100 essays in Insight Philadelphia tells a succinct, compelling, and little-known tale of the city's past. Some stories are quirky, like how early gas stations were designed to resemble classical temples, or the saga of how a museum acquired a 2000-year-old Greek statue, then had it demolished with a sledgehammer. Other stories turn serious, exploring the tragic deaths of child laborers in the city's textile mills and a century-old case of racial profiling that led to a stationhouse murder. Historian Kenneth Finkel introduces readers to the many brave souls and colorful characters who left their mark on the city, from the Irish immigrant ""coal heavers""—who initiated the nation's first general strike—to the teenage Josephine Baker making a flashy debut on the Philadelphia stage. Illustrated with scores of rare archival images, Insight Philadelphia will give readers a new appreciation for the people and places that make the City of Brotherly Love so unique.
Full Product Details
Author: Kenneth Finkel
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.626kg
ISBN: 9780813597447
ISBN 10: 0813597447
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 25 July 2018
Recommended Age: From 14 to 99 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
General
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Kenneth Finkel is Philadelphia's best historian and a virtuoso story teller. With graceful words and memorable old photographs, his essays transport us to forgotten moments when, we learn with surprise and delight, big things happened. --David B. Brownlee Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania In this wide-ranging and informative tour of Philadelphia past and present, drawn from his popular blog posts, Kenneth Finkel offers witty and often gently irreverent glimpses of the city's colorful people and places. --Elizabeth Milroy Drexel University From a city long overshadowed by the Liberty Bell, Kenneth Finkel pries tantalizing pieces of a past little known or even remembered that shape Philadelphia today. 'Place matters, ' he argues. And then proves it--again and again--with his trademark wit and insight. --Rick Nichols journalist and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania No one knows the iconic as well as the forgotten nooks and crannies of Philadelphia and its history better than Kenneth Finkel. Inspired by evocative archival photographs, these lively, thought-provoking essays connect the past to the present of a great city. --Kathleen A. Foster The Robert L. McNeil, Jr., senior curator of American Art, and director, Center for American Art
No one knows the iconic as well as the forgotten nooks and crannies of Philadelphia and its history better than Kenneth Finkel. Inspired by evocative archival photographs, these lively, thought-provoking essays connect the past to the present of a great city.
Author Information
KENNETH FINKEL is a professor of history at Temple University in Philadelphia, and the author of nine books on Philadelphia. He was a former curator of prints and photographs at the Library Company of Philadelphia, program officer at the William Penn Foundation, and executive director of arts and culture service at WHYY.
