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This pocket guide includes all 17 species of frogs and toads found in Pennsylvania. These are the creatures you might encounter hopping or leaping along the edges of marshes, roadside ditches, rivers, ponds and lakes of the Keystone State. This guide is ideal for budding and experienced naturalists and for anyone with an interest in nature. Each entry includes size, geographic range, habitat, habits, and color photos -
For centuries the Western view of the Iroquois was clouded by the myth that they were the supermen of the frontier—"the Romans of this Western World," as De Witt Clinton called them in 1811. Only in recent years have scholars come to realize the extent to which Europeans had exaggerated the power of the Iroquois. First published in 1987, Beyond the Covenant Chain was one of the first studies to acknowledge fully that the Iroquois never had an empire. It remains the best study of diplomatic and military relations among Native American groups in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century North America. -
After the French and Indian War, the British claimed control of the Forks of the Ohio. The Indians of the area felt threatened by hard-fisted British control and began seizing forts in the Ohio Valley. This guidebook focuses on the turning point of the resulting Pontiac's War, the Battle of Bushy Run, fought near Jeanette, Pennsylvania, in August 1763, between several Indian nations and three British regiments led by Col. Henry Bouquet. -
The Founding Fathers have been hailed for centuries as shining examples of men who put aside their own agendas to found a nation. But behind the scenes, there were more petty fights and fraught relationships than signatures on the Declaration of Independence. From the violent brawl between Roger Griswold and Matthew Lyon in the halls of Congress, to George Washington's battle against his slave Harry Washington, these less-discussed clashes bring to light the unpredictable and volatile nature of a constantly changing nation. Additionally, this gripping narrative delves deeper into the famous feuds, such as the fatal duel of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and the many rivalries of Thomas Jefferson (which were as often personal as political.) America's great forbearers fought with each other as bitterly as our politicians do today. Founding Feuds reveals the true natures of the Founding Fathers and how their infighting shaped our nation as much as their cooperation, in fact sometimes even for the better. -
The book has a great balance of research, outdoor experiences, and thoughts by the author as he visits battle and camp sites from the french and indian war. If you are a reenactor, outdoors person, or just plain enjoy history and reading about anothers’ love of the same subject, then you can't go wrong with this book. The author's experience and knowledge combined with his enjoyable writing style will allow you to be drawn into his adventures in the snow covered forests of upstate New York. -
Guns at the Forks is a special reissue commemorating the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War. In a spirited, intelligent, and informative history, O’Meara tells the story of five successive forts, particularly Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt, and the dramatic part they played in the war between 1750 and 1760. He describes Washington’s capitulation at Fort Necessity, Braddock’s defeat at the Monongahela, and Forbes’s successful campaign to retake Fort Duquesne. Although most of the action in the book takes place at the strategically important forks of the Ohio, where present-day Pittsburgh stands, O’Meara’s narrative relates the two forts to the larger story of the French and Indian War and elucidates their roles in sparking a global conflict that altered the course of world events and decided the fate of empires. -
In response to the uprising known as "Pontiac's Rebellion", General Amherst order two relief expeditions to march to Fort Pitt and Fort Detroit in an efort to force the enemy to lift their sieges of the posts. For the relief of Fort Pitt, Amherst chose Colonel Henry Bouquet. With a small army of British regular troops, a group of Virginia packhorse drivers, and a small company of Maryland rangers, Henry Bouquet set off to relieve Fort Pitt. On the 5th of August, 1763, Colonel Bouquet intended to march his men about 17 miles before letting them fall-out and refresh themselves in a nearby creek before making a nighttime march in order to avoid a possible enemy ambush. The place he planned to stop was called "Bushy Run", and although he did not know it at the time, Henry Bouquet was marching towards his destiny... This book, containing numerous first person entries, chronicles Bouquet's early military career and his arrival in North America where he participated in the 1758 Forbes Campaign and the fateful Battle of Bushy Run during Pontiac's Rebellion. -
This book fulfills the author's lifelong dream. In it he attempts to recount over two centuries of local history - from the planting of civilization through significant aspects of human activity relating to the township's process of development. Includes a map of Penn Township. A must have book for Penn Township residents. -
On the eve of the Seven Years' War in North America, the British crown convened the Albany Congress, an Anglo-Iroquois treaty conference, in response to a crisis that threatened imperial expansion. British authorities hoped to address the impending collapse of Indian trade and diplomacy in the northern colonies, a problem exacerbated by uncooperative, resistant colonial governments. In the first book on the subject in more than forty-five years, Timothy J. Shannon definitively rewrites the historical record on the Albany Congress. Challenging the received wisdom that has equated the Congress and the plan of colonial union it produced with the origins of American independence, Shannon demonstrates conclusively the Congress's importance in the wider context of Britain's eighteenth-century Atlantic empire. In the process, the author poses a formidable challenge to the Iroquois Influence Thesis. The Six Nations, he writes, had nothing to do with the drafting of the Albany Plan, which borrowed its model of constitutional union not from the Iroquois but from the colonial delegates' British cousins.Far from serving as a dress rehearsal for the Constitutional Convention, the Albany Congress marked, for colonists and Iroquois alike, a passage from an independent, commercial pattern of intercultural relations to a hierarchical, bureaucratic imperialism wielded by a distant authority. -
The year: 1758. A global conflict known as the French and Indian War rages, with the British battling the French and their Indian allies for control of North America. This spellbinding chapter in American history unfolds in a lively historic narrative, punctuated with rich, original illustrations. Join a headstrong young George Washington and British General John Forbes as they carve a trail through the Pennsylvania wilderness, capture Fort Duquesne and help set the stage for the birth of a nation. Let history be your guide as you experience the Forbes Trail today. Start at one of seven gateways as you traverse 250 years of American history―and explore the authentic historic sites, natural wonders, restored houses and gardens, and extensive recreational opportunities that define the land today. -
First published in 1947, Pontiac and the Indian Uprising is a product of his time; it is both informative and reflective of the attitudes that existed fifty years ago about Native Americans. Howard Peckham examines how Pontiac was able to lead four tribes to war and inspire the revolt of many more. He looks at the circumstances that motivated and encouraged him, and finally, at Pontiac's eventual failure. This comprehensive investigation of Pontiac's life was difficult because, unable to write, he left no collection of papers. All of his contemporaries who wrote about him were also his enemies, so obtaining an objective picture from them was nearly impossible. Peckham used important source material that enabled him to understand the Ottawa chief and to trace his movements with some continuity. The book includes, in full, the few letters that Pontiac dictated and his speeches. -
Pontiac’s War: Its Causes, Course, and Consequence, 1763-1765 is a compelling retelling of one of the most pivotal points in American colonial history, in which the Native peoples staged one of the most successful campaigns in three centuries of European contact. With his balanced analysis of the organization and execution of this important conflict, Middleton sheds light on the military movement that forced the British imperial forces to reinstate diplomacy to retain their authority over the region. Spotlighting the Native American perspective, Pontiac’s War presents a careful, engaging account of how very close to success those Native American forces truly came.
