This collection of warm and witty pieces by Venango County columnist Peter Greene profiles some of NW PA's most remarkable residents including John D. Rockefeller, Johnny Appleseed, Civil War General Jesse Reno, best-selling author Hildegarde Dolson, town character Grassy Nichols, trust inventor S. C. T. Dodd, flyswatting pioneer Samuel Crumbine, football coach Joe Stewart, scholar Harold Dodds, and an assortment of teachers, musicians, and colorful local figures. These mini-biographies are warm and light-hearted, capturing the many sorts of lives that have been lived in one slice of small...

Northwest Pennsylvania's oil region is known for the many tales surrounding the birth and growth of the petroleum industry, but there's much more to tell. The Venango County area was a pre-Revolution frontier and a front row seat for the Whiskey Rebellion before settling in to become the embodiment of American small town life, both in the age in which that life typified America, and in the era in which the city left the small town behind. This volume collects writing from regional columnist Peter Greene. Light, witty, fun, and informative, it opens a window on a special part of American...

Peter Greene blogs about the current state of public education with plenty of sass and not much rigor. This book includes almost 100 favorites from his popular blogs Curmudgucation and View from the Cheap Seats, and makes the case that there is much to love at US public education and much not to take serious about many of the folks who want to tear down one of our most fundamental democratic institutions.