Read and Download eBook Full
Author: J. J. McLaurin
Publisher: Metalmark
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780271064529
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA history of Johnstown, published in 1890, from the colonial period to the 1889 flood, when the South Fork Dam on the Conemaugh River failed. Features a journalistic account of the flood.
Author: Kathleen E. George
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Published: 2014-04-01
Total Pages: 349
ISBN-13: 0822979535
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEllen Emerson may be the last living survivor of the Johnstown flood. She was only four years old on May 31, 1889, when twenty million tons of water decimated her hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Thousands perished in what was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history at the time. As we witness in The Johnstown Girls, the flood not only changed the course of history, but also the individual lives of those who survived it. A century later, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters Ben Bragdon and Nina Collins set out to interview 103-year-old Ellen for Ben's feature article on the flood. When asked the secret to her longevity, Ellen simply attributes it to "restlessness." As we see, that restlessness is fueled by Ellen's innate belief that her twin sister Mary, who went missing in the flood, is somehow still alive. Her story intrigues Ben, but it haunts Nina, who is determined to help Ellen find her missing half. Novelist Kathleen George masterfully blends a history of the Johnstown flood into her heartrending tale of twin sisters who have never known the truth about that fateful day in 1889—a day that would send their lives hurtling down different paths. The Johnstown Girls is a remarkable story of perseverance, hard work, and never giving up hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. It's also a tribute to the determination and indomitable spirit of the people of Johnstown through one hundred years, three generations, and three different floods.
Author: David McCullough
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-05-31
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 1416561226
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe stunning story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation’s burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal. Graced by David McCullough’s remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly.
Author: Cody McDevitt
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2015-11-09
Total Pages: 214
ISBN-13: 1439668841
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines one of the worst civil rights injustices in Pennsylvania history—the 1923 banishment of Black and Mexican residents from Johnstown. In response to the fatal shooting of four policemen in 1923, the mayor of Johnstown ordered every African American and Mexican immigrant who had lived in the city for less than seven years to leave. They were given less than a day to move or would face crippling fines or jail time. Many were forced out at gunpoint. An estimated two thousand people uprooted their lives in response to the racist edict. Area Ku Klux Klan members celebrated the creation of a “sundown town” and increased their own intimidation practices. Meanwhile, figures such as Marcus Garvey spoke out against the unjust action as newspapers throughout the country published condemnations. In Banished from Jonestown, historian and award-winning journalist Cody McDevitt examines the events and impact of one of the worst civil rights injustices in Western Pennsylvania history.
Author: Ann E. Burg
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2020-10-06
Total Pages: 336
ISBN-13: 1338541005
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnn E. Burg explores the deep class divides and social injustice behind one of America's greatest tragedies. * "Stunning, significant and sorrowful, Ann E. Burg's requiem melts history into prose... Highly recommended." -- School Library Journal, starred review "Chillingly effective." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889 was a lively, working-class factory city. Above the soot-soaked streets, an elite fishing and hunting club, built on a pristine man-made lake, drew America's wealthiest business barons. Though repeatedly urged to fix the deteriorating dam that held the lake, the club members disregarded the warnings. And when heavy rains came, the dam collapsed and plunged the city into chaos. On that fateful day, six children found themselves caught in the wreckage. The chorus of their voices--all inspired by real people--create a gripping portrait of loss and healing. Plumbing themes of class, injustice, deprivation, and the environment, Ann E. Burg summons her prodigious heart and virtuosic poetry to turn one of the deadliest tragedies in our country's history into a transcendent and hopeful work of art.
Author: Russell Shorto
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2021-02-02
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 0393245594
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Family secrets emerge as a best-selling author dives into the history of the mob in small-town America. Best-selling author Russell Shorto, praised for his incisive works of narrative history, never thought to write about his own past. He grew up knowing his grandfather and namesake was a small-town mob boss but maintained an unspoken family vow of silence. Then an elderly relative prodded: You’re a writer—what are you gonna do about the story? Smalltime is a mob story straight out of central casting—but with a difference, for the small-town mob, which stretched from Schenectady to Fresno, is a mostly unknown world. The location is the brawny postwar factory town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The setting is City Cigar, a storefront next to City Hall, behind which Russ and his brother-in-law, “Little Joe,” operate a gambling empire and effectively run the town. Smalltime is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, the author’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life—and wife—in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. Smalltime draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But Smalltime is something more. The author enlists his ailing father—Tony, the mobster’s son—as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch. As secrets are revealed and Tony’s health deteriorates, the book become an urgent and intimate exploration of three generations of the American immigrant experience. Moving, wryly funny, and richly detailed, Smalltime is an irresistible memoir by a masterful writer of historical narrative.
Author: Randy Whittle
Publisher: Definitive History
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781596290525
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe history of the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is a testament to the strength of the people that call it home. In the second volume of history for this stalwart Pennsylvania city, Randy Whittle shows how Johnstown pulled together, even after the devastation of a flood in 1936 that wrought massive damage throughout the community. Following World War II, the community struggled to rise above adversity in the economy and to establish civil rights for all. Johnstown is a true American city, as strong as the steel that is forged in its famous mills. From Johnstown's enormous contribution in steel and coal to the war effort to its recovery after the monumental flood of 1977, Whittle's book shows how the people of Johnstown made it the modern city it is today.
Author: Lewis G. Decker
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 132
ISBN-13: 9780738501741
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe County seat of Fulton County is nestled in the foothills of the Adirondacks and the highlands of the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York. Johnstown's founder, Sir William Johnson, built his baronial home here in 1762. Shortly after, he laid out a small settlement, which he named John's Town after his son John. Johnstown has evolved significantly since the late eighteenth century and has left in its historical path many unique features: the Battle of Johnstown, one of the last battles of the American Revolution, was fought here in 1781, and the famous suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born here. Johnstown is known for having the oldest existing courthouse in the state, which is one of the oldest in the nation that is still being used as a courthouse today. Johnstown has been home to renowned politicians, artists, entertainers, as well as a naval hero and congressman who became one of the first commanders of Old Iron Sides in Boston Harbor.
Author: Steven Otfinoski
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 113
ISBN-13: 1663958955
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn May 31, 1889, heavy rains and a dam failure sent flood waters sweeping into Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The 50-foot-high wall of water quickly demolished much of the town. Will you and your new husband be able to escape certain doom as you wait for your train to leave the station? Can you climb onto your house's roof for safety before the building completely fills with water? Will you join in the effort to save others who are floating by on the roofs of their houses? With dozens of possible choices, it's up to YOU to find a way to survive one of the deadliest disasters in American history.
Author: Marc Tyler Nobleman
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2005-09
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13: 9780756512675
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDiscusses the causes, both natural and human, of the Johnstown flood.
