Delaware Books

Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History)

David Hackett Fischer

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Washington, George

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 86 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia.
Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, George Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.
Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning.

Wilmington: Picturing Change

Harry Rogerson

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Editorial Review:

Remember shopping at the Wilmington Dry Goods store on Market Street or seeing a film at the Warner Theatre on Tenth? Today these Wilmington, Delaware, landmarks exist only as memories, stories and images in Harry Rogerson's extensive collection. In Wilmington: Picturing Change, Rogerson shares these images as he documents the dramatic ways in which the city's landscape has been altered by expanding suburbs and changing demographics. Through vintage slides and contemporary photography, Rogerson helps us all remember the past while depicting this great American city's present transformation.

Delaware Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series)

Beth Rubin

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> Delaware

Editorial Review:

This laugh-out-loud guide will introduce readers to the offbeat people, places, and events of the Diamond State.

Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

Mary A. Shafer

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first definitive documentary of this tragic event along one of the country's most beautiful rivers.

August 18-20, 1955: Three terrifying days and nights still remembered with awe in the Delaware River valley. Record-breaking rainfall from hurricanes Connie and Diane abruptly ended a withering drought, but the relief was short-lived. It was soon overshadowed by terror and destruction that tore away bridges and ripped houses from their foundations.

From the river’s headwaters in the Catskills and through the Poconos, excessive runoff surged down steep slopes and through valleys on both sides of the river. Tributaries swelled unbelievably, some rising thirty feet in fifteen minutes. Eventually, they all poured into the Delaware, transforming the usually placid waters into a raging, uncontrollable beast.

Mountain resorts were inundated, leaving cars upended in swimming pools. Entire summer camps were washed away. More than 400 children were evacuated by helicopter from island camps in a tense, unprecedented operation.

In the end, nearly a hundred people were dead and hundreds more homeless. Dozens were missing, some ripped--still sleeping--from their beds in the middle of the night. Victims’ bodies were still being recovered thirty years later—some were never found.

Devastation on the Delaware follows the true stories of survivors and eyewitnesses to bring these events to chilling life. More than 100 historical photos and a dozen maps illustrate this narrative nonfiction account of a tragic event that changed life in the Delaware Valley forever.

The Delaware Indians: A History

C. A. Weslager

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An excellent, well-researched study of Delaware Indians 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

Weslager combines a flair for description with a scholarly tone to produce what is to date the most fair, accurate study of the Delaware Indians, or Lenni Lenape. Using historical, archealogical, anthropological, and ethnohistorical evidence, Weslager provides an almost complete history of this often neglected Indian tribe. This work is a must read for anyone interested in the early history of the mid-Atlantic region.

Editorial Review:

In the seventeenth century white explores and settlers encountered a tribe of Indians calling themselves Lenni Lenape along the Delaware River and its tributaries in New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, and southeastern New York. Today communities of their descendants, known as Delawares, are found in Oklahoma, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Ontario, and individuals of Delaware ancestry are mingled with the white populations in many other states. The Delaware Indians is the first comprehensive account of what happened to the main body of the Delaware Nation over the past three centuries.

Penelope: The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman--A Narrative Poem (Contemporary Poetry Series)

PENELOPE SCAMBLY SCHOTT

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"Penelope, The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman" 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"Penelope, The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman" invokes 3 Penelopes. Penelope Schott, its author. Penelope of "The Odyssey", Ulysses' long abandoned and faithful wife, and the Penelope of this true story, an early American settler. Like The Odyssey's Penelope, her tale is told in poetry. Newlywed Penelope arrives from Holland, on the shores of New Jersey in 1640. Her husband is too ill to go further so they are left by their companions. Almost immediately they are set upon by Lenape Indians who kill her husband and leave Penelope half scalped and half dead. She is found by other Indians of the same tribe, where she has found shelter in a hollow tree. Healed and cared for by them, Penelope makes her life among them until she is "rescued" by white settlers with whom she can no longer fit in. Researched carefully from documents and family history, Penelope Stout's tale is one of bravery, both alone and in numbers. Written beautifully, it's a tale thrice told: about Ulysses' Penelope, Penelope Stout, and the story's author Penelope Schott, women whose awareness of life is the same despite the centuries.

Editorial Review:

Narrates the life of a woman shipwrecked in the 1640s on the shores of modern-day New Jersey, axed in the belly, half-scalped and left for dead by the Lenape Indians, then nursed back to health by them and taken into the tribe. And that's only the beginning. Penelope Scambly Schott has carefully researched the facts and woven them into a poetic page-turner.

Civil War GHOSTS at Fort Delaware

Ed Okonowicz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Haunted Dungeons and Lost Gold 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Ed Okonowicz has become the foremost authority on ghosts and haunts of the Delmarva area and it is obvious from his writing that he loves this area and his subject very much. He has written several very good books about the ghosts of this area and this book covers a field where he is especially knowledgeable because he has for several years led ghost tours of this old fort.

Fort Delaware was built as part of America's coastal defenses but during the Civil War it became a POW camp housing thousands of Confederate soldiers as well as a few of the Lincoln administration's political prisoners, many of which died in captivity. I can't think of a more perfect place to hunt ghosts and in this case the author has actually had an experience of his own.

Unfortunately many of the stories in this book have little or nothing to do with ghosts and some of those that do are rather shallow. There are however some real gems to be found in this book and they contain everything a good ghost story should. There is a history of the haunt and interviews have been conducted with those who have experienced the haunt. As is the case with some of this author's other books there is also a rating given to many of the haunts by a group of local paranormal investigators, a handy dandy feature if you ask me.

Normally I wouldn't be at all happy that stories that do not relate to ghosts have been included in this type of book but in this case the stories in question are so good that I really can't complain much. For instance there is a story about a portrait of Zachary Taylor that hangs in the old fort and a picture of this portrait is included. At first glance it looks like an ordinary painting but if one squints just right another image emerges and an eerie image it is. This picture is so amazing that it alone is well worth the price of the book.

The book concludes with a rather long story that also has nothing to do with ghosts but it is one of the most fascinating stories that I have come across in a long time. It involves secret escape tunnels, government denials, spies and lost Confederate gold. Need I say more?

This may not be strictly speaking the best book of ghost stories you will ever come across but it is certainly a very good ghost book. Add to the very good ghost stories a strong visual effect and a few other extraordinary tales told by a superb storyteller and the end result is a book that I can highly recommend.

Editorial Review:

Ghosts roaming a Civil War ishalnd prison—plus eerie tales in nearby Delaware City and Olde New Castle—come alive in this haunted history of Pea Patch Island. The small spit of land in the Delaware River, between Delaware and New Jersey, held 33,000 Confederate prisoners during the Civil War. Those who died on the island took a final ride on the "Death Boat" to be buried on the New Jersey mainland. The author, co-developer and host of the island's Ghost/History tours, shares spooky stories—and more than 70 photographs—of haunted locations, fort history and restless spirits. Comments by fort staff and visitors, plus an apparition captured on film, make this a great book for both Civil War fans and ghost hunters. Also, a tombstone ranking rate's the haunted prison's most spirited sites.

Long Journey Home: Oral Histories of Contemporary Delaware Indians

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Editorial Review:

Through first-person accounts, "Long Journey Home" presents the stories of the Lenape, also known as the Delaware Tribe. These oral histories, which span the post-Civil War era to the present, are gathered into four sections and tell of personal and tribal events as they unfold over time and place. The history of the Lenape is one of forced displacement, from their original tribal home along the eastern seaboard into Pennsylvania, continuing with a series of displacements in Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory. For the group of Lenape interviewed for this book, home is now the area around Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The stories of their long journey have been handed down and remain part of the tribe's collective memory and bring an unforgettable immediacy to the tale of the Lenape. Above all, they make clear that the history of seven generations remains very much alive.

Springfield Township, Delaware County (PA) (Images of America)

Springfield Historical Society

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Carved out of the wilderness in the 1680s, Springfield Township was formed as Quaker families seeking religious freedom settled the area. In a region roughly bounded by Darby Creek to the east and Crum Creek to the west, the early settlers shared forests with the native Lenni Lenape tribe. Just nine miles west of the port of Philadelphia, Springfield harnessed tumbling creeks with mills during the industrial revolution and provided the growing commonwealth with edge tools from Beatty Ax Works and fabric from Victoria Plush Mill. Builders used abundant stone quarries to construct grand homes, including that of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s first chief engineer, J. Edgar Thomson, who laid out the famous Horseshoe Curve and Main Line to Pittsburgh. The construction of the Media Shortline Trolley helped Springfield grow, as did the Saxon Avenue Shops and unique developments such as Windsor Circle and Rolling Road. Springfield Township documents the area’s transformation into a modern town rich with amenities and community organizations.

Philadelphia's River Wards (PA) (Images of America)

George J. Holmes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

VERY interesting read 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

George Holmes, a former investigative reporter with Jim Tayoun's "Public Record" newspaper, did a thorough job of digging up the history of the River Wards - neighborhoods on the edge of the Delaware River including Fishtown, Kensington, Port Richmond, and Bridesburg. Holmes concentrated more on Fishtown and Kensington than the other River Ward neighborhoods.

The SEPTA archives proved to be an invaluable tool in reconstructing the history of the area, with the construction of the Market Frankford Elevated (the "el," for short) being a major milestone.

I never knew, or had even heard, that there was a 12 foot excavation on the corner of Lehigh and Kensington Avenues. Why the city of Philadelphia decided to do that will forever remain a mystery.

A thorough history for the once-industrial stronghold of the "River Wards."

Editorial Review:

Philadelphiaís River Wards is the story of five remarkable neighborhoods that line the banks of the Delaware River from Vine Street to the Frankford Creek: Northern Liberties, Kensington, Port Richmond, Frankford, and Bridesburg. The first white settlers arrived in the area in the 1600s, and the population grew with the influx of European immigrants in the 1800s and early 1900s. Industry flourished as fabric and textile mills sprang up and shipyards and terminals lined the waterfront. In 1922, the Frankford El, a technological marvel, forever changed the face of transportation in the area, connecting the River Wards to the far reaches of the city. Philadelphiaís River Wards captures this history in more than two hundred vintage photographs, rare maps, and historical drawings. ÝÝ