An extensive number of trolley car lines linked the city of Philadelphia to the rich farmland and picturesque towns of southeastern Pennsylvania. These trolley lines traversed miles of narrow streets lined with row houses whose residents were proud working-class Americans. These historic photographs trace the trolley cars' routes, including Route 23, the region's longest urban trolley route, from the expanses of Northwest Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill through the crowded commercial Center City to South Philadelphia with a variety of neighborhood stops at everything in between. Southeastern Pennsylvania Trolleys follows the history of the trolley cars that have served this diverse and historic region.

The Wyoming Valley is nestled among the Endless Mountains in Luzerne County with the scenic Susquehanna River meandering through it. Best known for its rich deposits of anthracite coal, the Wyoming Valley was first colonized by Connecticut settlers in 1769. Electric trolleys served many urban centers in Pennsylvania. Trolley service in the Wyoming Valley started in 1888 and lasted for more than 60 years. Trolley lines went through the boroughs and townships of Ashley, Courtdale, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Hanover, Kingston, Larksville, Miners Mills, Nanticoke, Parsons, Pittston, Plains, Plymouth, Sugar Notch, West Pittston, West Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, and Wyoming. Greater Wyoming Valley Trolleys features rare photographs dating from the 1890s to 1950 documenting the trolley system and the communities of the Wyoming Valley.

The Mountain View Trolley was established on July 10, 1907, after booming tourism increased the need for transportation between Stroudsburg and the town of Delaware Water Gap. In the late 1800s, visitors began flocking to the region to enjoy the beautiful scenery and pristine wildlife. Built by the J. R. Brill Company in Philadelphia, the Mountain View Trolley ran on a narrow-gauge track and was capable of hauling a large number of passengers. The trolley cars operated on overhead wires and battery power and ran year-round, shuttling residents and visitors and working as a school bus for local schoolchildren. The introduction of motor coaches and automobiles brought about the end of the trolley age, and the Mountain View Trolley ended its run in September 1928.

Before subways and trains, Queens and Long Island were reachable via a large number of electric trolley lines. An amazing assortment of electric trolley lines once traversed the towns and villages of Queens and Long Island. With names like Jamaica Central, Northport Traction, Ocean Electric, and the Steinway lines, some meandered across meadows and hills while others sped over elevated tracks. There was even one line that had streetcars but no tracks. In the end, all of them helped stitch the countryside into the concentrated suburban area it is today--with barely a trace of the trolleys left anywhere.

The fossil fuel revolution is usually rendered as a tale of historic advances in energy production. In this perspective-changing account, Christopher F. Jones instead tells a story of advances in energy access—canals, pipelines, and wires that delivered power in unprecedented quantities to cities and factories at a great distance from production sites. He shows that in the American mid-Atlantic region between 1820 and 1930, the construction of elaborate transportation networks for coal, oil, and electricity unlocked remarkable urban and industrial growth along the eastern seaboard. But this new transportation infrastructure did not simply satisfy existing consumer demand—it also whetted an appetite for more abundant and cheaper energy, setting the nation on a path toward fossil fuel dependence. Between the War of 1812 and the Great Depression, low-cost energy supplied to cities through a burgeoning delivery system allowed factory workers to mass-produce goods on a scale previously unimagined. It also allowed people and products to be whisked up and down the East Coast at speeds unattainable in a country dependent on wood, water, and muscle. But an energy-intensive America did not benefit all its citizens equally. It provided cheap energy to some but not others; it channeled profits to financiers rather than laborers; and it concentrated environmental harms in rural areas rather than cities. Today, those who wish to pioneer a more sustainable and egalitarian energy order can learn valuable lessons from this history of the nation’s first steps toward dependence on fossil fuels.