An Alternative History of Pittsburgh

by Ed Simon

Overview

“[An] epic, atomic history of the Steel City . . . a work of literature, a series of linked creative nonfiction essays, an historical story cycle.” ―Phillip Maciak, Los Angeles Review of Books
 
The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. Over the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed countless times by the many people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic collection, Ed Simon, a staff writer at The Millions, follows the story of Pittsburgh through a series of interconnected segments, covering all manner of beloved people, places, and things, including:

• Paleolithic Pittsburgh
• The Whiskey Rebellion
• The attempted assassination of Henry Frick
• The Harmonists
• The Mystery, Pittsburgh’s radical, Black nationalist newspaper
• The myth of Joe Magarac
• Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Andy Warhol, and much, much more.

Accessible and funny, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is a must-read for anyone curious about this storied city, and for Pittsburghers who think they know it all too well already.
 
“[A] rich and idiosyncratic history . . . Even Pittsburgh history buffs will learn something new.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“Simon tells the story of the city and all the changes that made it what it is today in a way that's entirely new, by the hand of someone who is deeply familiar.” ―Juliana Rose Pignataro, Newsweek
 
“A sparkling new take on everyone’s favorite Rust Belt metropolis.” ―Justin Velluci, Jewish Chronicle
 
“A brilliant look at how geology and art, politics and religion, disaster and luck combine to build America’s great cities―one that will leave you wondering what secrets your own hometown might be hiding.” ―Anjali Sachdeva, author of All the Names They Used for God

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953368133
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	158
Sales rank:	731,278
File size:	779 KB

About the Author

Ed Simon is a staff writer at The Millions and a contributing editor for History News Network . He is the author of several books, most recently Printed in Utopia: The Renaissance's Radicalism . His essays

Table of Contents

Introduction x

Part I Ox and Sovereign Spirit: Land, People, and Beginnings (c.300 Million BCE-1799)

300 million BCE_ A Leaf Transformed into Coal x

c.19,000 BCE_ The Pre-Clovis x

c. 1142_ The Great Peacemaker x

1680_ Land Granted x

1754_ Mass at Fort Duquesne x

1755_ General Braddock's Defeat x

1763_ Biological Warfare at Fort Pitt x

1769_ The III-Fated Vandalia Colony x

1792_ Modern Chivalry x

1793_ The First Iron Forge x

1794_ Whiskey Rebels March x

1798_ Sganyadái:yo x

Part II City of Brick and Tired Wood: Industry, Labor, and Growth (1800-1899)

1804_ Harmony x

1826_ "Beautiful Dreamer" x

1831_ Free Soil x

1845_ The Great Fire x

1848_ A Scottish Immigrant Comes to Allegheny x

1849_ A Nativist in Market Square x

1856_ The Birth of the Grand Old Party x

1866_ Fenian Raids x

1877_ The Great Railroad Strike x

1885_ The Pittsburgh Platform x

1892_ The Attempted Assassination of Henry Clay Frick x

1896_ Carnegie International x

Part III A Consequence of America: Rise, Fall, and Reinvention (1900-)

1906_ The Red Velvet Swing x

1918_ The Pittsburgh Agreement x

1924_ A Cathedral of Learning x

1928_ An Activist in the Making x

1931_ Joe Magarac in Scribner's x

1937_ The Vanka Murals x

1938_ Billy Strayhorn Meets Duke Ellington x

1942_ Horseshoe Curve x

1949_ The Frank Lloyd Wright Plan x

1960_ A Gladstone High School Dropout x

1960_ World Series Champions x

1962_ Coca-Cola and Marilyn Monroe x

1968_ The Hill District Riots x

1972_ The Immaculate Reception x

1985_ Shadyside Presbyterian x

Afterword: An East Liberty Parable x

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is nothing short of an epic, a sprawling history of a city that is as complex and polyphonous as America itself. Simon, whose history with the city goes deep, serves as a brilliant guide to this terrain, traversing a network of intersecting stories with lyricism and novelistic verve, calling our attention to what has been forgotten and overlooked, and discovering the numinous where you'd least expect it. The book is at once a love letter, a reckoning, and an insurrection against familiar narratives about the Rust Belt, reminding us why this city and its history remain so urgent today."—Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of Interior States

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2021

Pittsburgh native Simon (Furnace of this World), a staff writer at The Millions, explores “the major thematic concerns” of his hometown in this rich and idiosyncratic history. Beginning 300 million years ago, when Allegheny County was the swampy domain of giant amphibians and “sun-dappled mangroves,” the petrified remains of which formed western Pennsylvania’s extensive coal deposits, Simon spotlights “representative moments” from the region’s history, including the founding (c. 1142) of the Iroquois Confederacy by the Great Peacemaker, Deganawidah, and his follower, Hiawatha, and the birth of composer Stephen Foster in Pittsburgh on July 4, 1862. Simon also details Andrew Carnegie’s roots in the radical socialist politics of mid-19th-century Europe and sketches the steel baron’s rise from “bobbin-boy in a weaver’s shop” to “the richest man who ever lived”; notes the influences of Pittsburgh on famous sons including playwright August Wilson, jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, and artist Andy Warhol; and details how Democratic mayor David Lawrence and Republican financier Richard King Mellon partnered in the late 1940s to “completely redesign” the city’s “gritty, decayed, rusting core.” Though consequential events such as the collapse of the U.S. steel industry get relatively short shrift, Simon marshals his historical snapshots into an incisive survey of the region and its inhabitants. Even Pittsburgh history buffs will learn something new. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] rich and idiosyncratic history.... Simon marshals his historical snapshots into an incisive survey of the region and its inhabitants. Even Pittsburgh history buffs will learn something new."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher