No state in the entire Nation is richer in Indian names, or in fact, in Indian history than Pennsylvania. These Indian names of Pennsylvania are full of music, but, of far greater importance, they are full of history. A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania, which was first published in 1928, is the only major book of the 20th century that traces Pennsylvania’s Indian place and names for their correct form, origin and history. Its pages are filled with the most incredible collection of information ever assembled on the Indian villages of Pennsylvania and their Indian place names and is an Indian history scholar’s delight. In preparing his book, Dr. Donehoo researched every available source of printed material about Indian place names in Pennsylvania. He also walked nearly every Indian trail, from the Delaware to the Ohio, using early trader’s journals and maps as his guide, to seek out the places the Indians lived. Each Indian name comes complete with historical notes by the author. The book includes a list of all the sources used to authenticate each Indian place name. An excellent bibliography follows at the conclusion of the work along with appendixes listing: the Indian villages of New York destroyed by General Sullivan’s army in 1779, prehistoric works in Pennsylvania by county, and an alphabetical listing of all Indian named places in each county.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • "James and Deborah Fallows have always moved to where history is being made.... They have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment" —The New York Times • The basis for the HBO documentary streaming on HBO Max For five years, James and Deborah Fallows have travelled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, the America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. The Fallowses describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.

Drivers exiting the New Jersey Turnpike for Perth Amboy, and map readers marveling at all the places in Pennsylvania named Lackawanna, need no longer wonder how these names originated. Manhattan to Minisink provides the histories of more than five hundred place names in the Greater New York area, including the five boroughs, western Long Island, the New York counties north of the city, and parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. Robert S. Grumet, a leading ethnohistorian specializing in the region’s Indian peoples, draws on his meticulous research and deep knowledge to determine the origins of Native, and Native-sounding, place names. Grumet divides his encyclopedic entries into two parts. The first comprises an alphabetical listing of nearly 340 Indian place names preserved in colonial records, located by county and state. Each entry includes the name’s language of origin, if known, and a brief discussion of its etymology, including its earliest known occurrence in written records, the history of its appearance on maps, and the name’s current status. The book’s second section presents nearly 200 place names that, though widely believed to be of Indian origin, are “imports, inventions, invocations, or impostors.” Mistranslations are abundant in place names, and Grumet has ferreted out the mistakes and deceptions among home-grown colonial etymologies that New Yorkers have accepted for centuries. Complete with a concise history of Greater New York, a discussion of the region’s naming practices, a useful timeline, and four maps, this is an invaluable resource both for scholars and for readers who want a more intimate knowledge of the place where they live or visit.

The genealogist trying to locate families, the surveyor or attorney researching old deeds, or the historian seeking data on land settlement will find Pennsylvania Land Records an indispensable aid. The land records of Pennsylvania are among the most complete in the nation, beginning in the 1680s. Pennsylvania Land Records not only catalogs, cross-references, and tells how to use the countless documents in the archive, but also takes readers through a concise history of settlement in the state. The guide explains how to use the many types of records, such as rent-rolls, ledgers of the receiver general's office, mortgage certificates, proof of settlement statements, and reports of the sale of town lots. In addition, the volume includes: cross-references to microfilm copies; maps of settlement; illustrations of typical documents; a glossary of technical terms; and numerous bibliographies on related topics.

Place names in the United States are often taken from the European nation that first colonized the land. Many names that have been transferred from Britain, as is the case with Barnstable, Massachusetts and Danbury, Connecticut. Many others are of French origin, such as Detroit, Michigan, which was established along the banks of the river they called le détroit du lac Érié, meaning the strait of Lake Erie. Many in the former New Netherland colony are of Dutch origin, such as Harlem, Brooklyn and Rhode Island. Many place names are taken from the languages of native peoples. Specific (personal or animal) names and general words or phrases are used, sometimes translated and sometimes not. However complicated the tracing back of the place names was, this encyclopedia lists thousands and thousands of place names in the United States of America and provides valuable information as to the origin and the history of the name. A fantastic reference work for everyone interested in American history.

That many ancient toponyms in the Holy Land have survived for thousands of years, right up to modern times, is a remarkable and unique phenomenon, unparalleled in neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Asia Minor. Preserved toponymy provides a basis for research in the historical geography of the country and is also of major importance for studies in the history of Hebrew and Aramaic, being a kind of ancient "recording" of an archaic linguistic inventory. In addition, it has many implications for a wide variety of other scholarly fields, such as Bible studies, Rabbinics, Qumran and Samaritan studies, early Christianity, Arabic and Islam. This reserve of preserved place-names is therefore frequently consulted and used by scholars for their purposes. Surprisingly, however, despite the importance of this subject, there have been very few attempts to "put things in order," and for many years there have been no rules that would help to understand the changes that occur in toponyms. Accordingly, the prevailing situation in the field of historical geography is one of near-anarchy; lacking hard and fast rules, scholars could find support for their identification of an ancient toponym in any somewhat similar Arabic name. In order to break this vicious circle of conjectures founded on dubious linguistic assumptions, producing "preservation laws" themselves provide an alleged basis for historical identification, and so on, Elitzur has tried, first and foremost, to lay down objective criteria for the selection of positive identifications. On this basis, he has built up a corpus of 177 toponyms representing positive or almost-positive identifications, upon which this study is based. Sixty of these toponyms are then reviewed in depth, tracing their documentation in all languages, throughout recorded history; in the process, the author has tried to locate and analyze whatever changes occurred and when. The linguistic conclusions from the material follow, arranged according to the standard layout of grammar books. Innovative conclusions and ideas in the context of historical geography emerged in the course of the study are listed alphabetically in the last part of the volume.

NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES STARRING JEFF DANIELS AND MAURA TIERNEY An American voice reminiscent of Steinbeck – a debut novel on friendship, loyalty, and love, centering on a murder in a dying Pennsylvania steel town, from the bestselling author of THE SON. Isaac is the smartest kid in town, left behind to care for his sick father after his mother dies by suicide and his sister Lee moves away. Now Isaac wants out too. Not even his best friend, Billy Poe, can stand in his way: broad-shouldered Billy, always ready for a fight, still living in his mother's trailer. Then, on the very day of Isaac's leaving, something happens that changes the friends' fates and tests the loyalties of their friendship and those of their lovers, families, and the town itself. Evoking John Steinbeck's novels of restless lives during the Great Depression, American Rust is an extraordinarily moving novel about the bleak realities that battle our desire for transcendence, and the power of love and friendship to redeem us. 'A startlingly mature and impressive debut' KATE ATKINSON 'Darkly disturbing and darkly compelling' PATRICIA CORNWELL 'Written with considerable dramatic intensity and pace' COLM TÓIBÍN 'A masterpiece. The best book to come out of America since The Road' CHRIS CLEAVE