"Journalist Janny Scott describes the world that shaped her father, Robert Montgomery Scott (whose mother, Helen Hope Scott, was said to have inspired Katherine Hepburn's character in the play and the film The Philadelphia Story), and provides a look at the weight of inheritance, the tenacity of addiction, and the power of buried secrets"--

A memoir of defying the odds, as recounted by the captain of the first all-Black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo Championship. Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in "The Bottom," a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly's Fairmount Park, Kareem's brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers' fascination...

"A dark, poignant, and emotionally brave coming-of-age memoir: the story of a young man who, by handling the dead, makes peace with the living. For almost twenty years I mistook my father's downfall as my own. But it wasn't. It was not my sister's either, nor my mother's. A literature professor at La Salle University, Andrew Meredith's father was fired after unspecified allegations of sexual misconduct. It's a transgression Andrew cannot forgive,...

A penetrating, character-filled history "in the manner of David McCullough" (WSJ), revealing the deep roots of our tormented present-day politics. Democracy was broken. Or that was what many Americans believed in the decades after the Civil War. Shaken by economic and technological disruption, they sought safety in aggressive, tribal partisanship. The results were the loudest, closest, most violent elections in U.S. history, driven by vibrant...

"The remarkable and inspiring story of William Still, an unknown abolitionist who dedicated his life to managing a critical section of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia--the free state directly north of the Mason-Dixon line--helping hundreds of people escape from slavery"--

"Poor Richard's women describes Deborah's common-law marriage to Ben Franklin and his romances with other women"-- Benjamin Franklin: thrifty inventor, statesman of the Revolutionary era... lover of women. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for 44 years. An independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife, she raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint...

The personal struggles of the woman generally credited with having created the first American flag are set against the backdrop of the colonists' fight for independence.