Insight Philadelphia: Historical Essays Illustrated

by Kenneth Finkel

Each of the nearly 100 essays in Insight Philadelphia tells a succinct, compelling, and little-known tale of the city’s past. Some stories are quirky, like how early gas stations were designed to resemble classical temples, or the saga of how a museum acquired a 2000-year-old Greek statue, then had it demolished with a sledgehammer. Other stories turn serious, exploring the tragic deaths of child laborers in the city’s textile mills and a century-old case of racial profiling that led to a stationhouse murder. Historian Kenneth Finkel introduces readers to the many brave souls and colorful characters who left their mark on the city, from the Irish immigrant “coal heavers”—who initiated the nation’s first general strike—to the teenage Josephine Baker making a flashy debut on the Philadelphia stage.
 
Illustrated with scores of rare archival images, Insight Philadelphia will give readers a new appreciation for the people and places that make the City of Brotherly Love so unique. 

248 pages, Paperback

Published July 25, 2018

Reviews

[Joseph K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should have been titled "Hidden Philadelphia." I grew up there and lived in and around Philadelphia for over 18 years, and I’ve been returning at infrequent intervals for the past 42 years. Still, there was a lot—an awful lot—about the city I didn’t know.

This book is essentially 95 short essays, each 2–3 pages long, covering a multitude of topics grouped according to themes (e.g., Defining a City, etc.).

This book is for the complete Philadelphia nerd—the one who already knows most of the juicy bits of the city’s storied but not always righteous history.