An Alternative History of Pittsburgh

by Ed Simon

Shaped millions of years ago by the receding waters of a once great glacier, the land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. In the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed utterly and many times over by the people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic new book, Ed Simon follows the story of America's furnace through a series of interconnected segments.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Unfinished

176 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2021

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really had high hopes from the first few chapters that start at the very beginning (c.300 million BCE) and provide some really interesting background on the place not yet known as Pittsburgh's role in the Iroquois Empire. Cool! And then we zip forward to the 17th century and Fort Pitt and it's... not much of an alternative history. It's more of a chronological series of vignettes that form something like a montage of the city, occasionally detouring into something tangentially-related to the city.

The introduction ends with the claim, "If there is one overreaching argument to An Alternative History of Pittsburgh, it’s nothing more profound than this is a consequential place, this is an important place, this is a place that matters" [emphasis in original]. And maybe that's what feels disingenuous about the mini-chapters that make up the remainder of the text; the point of a history (not even touching on the 'alternative' aspect) is to create a narrative that links together all the snapshots of a place and time and tries to find meaning in that. And sure, this isn't claiming to be a great work of historiography, or comprehensive in any sense. But by taking an isolated event, providing just enough context to place it in some vague conception of a history, and then summarily moving on, I would argue that it actually devalues the idea of "a consequential place[, ] an important place[, ] a place that matters". The events are necessarily detached from their immediate causes and effects by virtue of the chapter structure, which doesn't allow enough narrative cohesion to actually say anything about the subject. What you end up with is a book of micro-essays that are not substantive enough to be read individually and not related enough to be read as a narrative.

Listen, I might have a History degree from Pitt, but I'm by no means a Pittsburgh historian. I'll say to the book's credit that I wrote down a lot of books cited in the text, and read a couple really great Wikipedia entries, like this one on Pittsburgh fakelore hero Joe Magarac. And I will give the benefit of the doubt here and assume that my ARC didn't have references attached yet because it's unfinished, and not because most of the sources go uncited.

I received an ARC of this book from Edelweiss.

[Laura M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains all of the stories that you've never heard about the origins of the area. From 300 million years ago until today. While Carnegie and Frick and Warhol make appearances, you also finally hear the stories of Laurasia and P.C.W. and how August Wilson dropped out of high school after his teacher accused him of plagiarism. Really good stuff.

[Victoria Wiedrich · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice series of vignettes that seem unrelated, but shows how Pittsburgh doesn’t deserve the “smoky, dirty steel town” stigma. The author has love for the city and it shows.

[Karen Schnakenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was tempted to do only one star but I did learn - or at least think I learned - a number of things I was not aware of about the city, which is my home. The problem is that this is not so much an "alternative" history as more of an "idiosyncratic" one composed of a series of vignettes and related themes to tie them together. It's sort of "Some Things about Pittsburgh You Might Not Have Known," or "Some Things About Pittsburgh that I found Interesting and did a bit of research on," but even here there are difficulties. Working hard to set aside the very purple prose, which I found to be more than a but distracting, I found a number of the vignettes to be interesting, but I also found that for the topics of which I had a reasonable knowledge, I kept running into statements that were either overly slanted or misleading so that I ultimately didn't feel I could necessarily trust the accuracy of information that was new to me. Simon takes pains in the Introduction to defend his alternative structure of selected episodes that he describes as "less a history than an assemblage of Rorschach inkblots; not a study or analysis, but a diary, a dream journal, a wooden shelf packed tight with interesting rocks and shells," and that can be defensible, but not when the contents of the vignettes themselves tend to vacillate between hyperbole and a related sense of exaggeration. There's a lot of black and white and very little nuanced gray, and the hyperbole ultimately undercut the authority of the writer. He is entertaining but for this reader at least needs to be taken with at least a small grain of salt.

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit bias here. Having lived most of my life in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, I was definitely predisposed to like this book. Even so, I do believe this collection is genuinely quite interesting, and while I was reading the essays, my family was on the receiving end of many a "Did you know...?" text message. The author has a poetic narrative voice, which I also sort of loved.

A thought that stuck me while reading: most of us probably have our own nascent Alt History of Pittsburgh somewhere in our brains. There are aspects of the city that fascinate me, which did not make the book. I imagine that during the promotional readings for this book, Simon has heard quite a few such topic suggestions from readers. There's an opportunity here for a sort of transmedia expansion. I wonder if he'll try it?

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

How has this book been out since 2021 and I just found it?! I snatched it, devoured it, tagged many passages, and I'm happy to recommend it to lovers of history and/or Pittsburgh. I was gripped by the opening chapters describing the geology and evolution of the Appalachians, and the monstrous creatures of the Carboniferous age (spiders with 2-foot legs! Newts 16 feet long!!) Many of the famous people of Pittsburgh are given fresh consideration and context - the chapter on Stephen Foster alone is worth the book - and Simon tracks the beginnings of national movements like AA, Black nationalism, Reform Judaism, modern art collecting, and the "trial of the century" press coverage to their origins in, yes, Pittsburgh. Informative and beautifully written.

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I think this is a nice introduction to the history of “The Steel City”. I really enjoyed some entries more than others. The Joseph Barker chapter being my favorite. Most people in this city have never heard of him and the author does a great job telling his story. All and all I would recommend this to anyone who wants a crash course in our city’s history.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice overview of all things that make Pittsburgh Pittsburgh including some history I never knew!

[Maggie Hutchison · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 - rounded up for the afterward that ties the narrative together more than anything else

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, but I thought it might be a little more alternative. It’s still a history driven by the big names (Carnegie, Frick, Mellon) and what they did. In fact, I think Simon is a little soft on Carnegie and the Mellons. What I wanted was a more vivid sense of the history of Pittsburgh as a more mysterious place, and, unfortunately, the unknowns don’t get known here.

[John Fool · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the worst book I've ever read. That being said, it does not deserve the title "An Alternative History of Pittsburgh." Most of the stories within are widely known. While this book does expand on these stories a bit (for example, that of Andrew Carnegie's upbringing and early career), I would hardly call it "alternative." Additionally, there aren't even citations listed! It seems odd to me to provide an expanded / alternative history, yet omit citations. Huge disappointment. I don't even know what can be trusted within all these stories as a result. Returning to the commonality of these stories- if you know very little about Pittsburgh history, it's a decent way to expand your knowledge. I can see some people who are typically not interested in history picking this up and learning more about names they've heard here and there, but the writing isn't exactly entertaining or interesting enough for much to stick. Too boring and disconnected (and not enough context) to be beginner, too basic to be advanced. My recommendation would be to include historical photos / prints in this book, enlarge it in size, and sell it as a coffee table book instead.

[Mark Nessing · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweeping history, well sourced.

[Janet Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed An Alternative History of Pittsburgh from cover to cover. Even though, I am familiar with Pittsburgh history, this book contained a lot of information that was new to me. It's very well written with some phrases that you'll remember for a long time...a good addition to your summer reading list

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book and I learned, and remembered, many interesting stories about the region where I live. The book is comprised of three parts containing short (about 5 pages) pieces about various historical events. Part I begins in prehistoric (Meadowcroft) time to 1799; Part II 1800-1899, and Part III 1900 to present. While some of the vignettes concern well-known event, the author also highlights lesser-known (at least to me) facts about the region.

Deganawidah's Great Code of Peace - a pacts between various native tribes sometimes between 1142 and 1451 as a democratic precursur of the much later Declaration of Independence. "...since Men are all made of the same Clay there should be no Distinction or Superiority among them." (30-31)

Swiss-born Colonel Henry Bouquet- "Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians?" By using infected blankets offered as gifts, killing as many as a million and a half Indians in the Ohio territory in the next decade (beginning around 1763). (45-46)

The differences between Philadelphia, and other eastern settlements and Pittsburgh/Appalachia -
"For the inheritors of Penn's utopian vision in Philadelphi, the battle-hardened Scots and Scots-Irish [of Western PA] provided a convenient means of fighting the Indians and French, Presbyterianism having no pacific inclinations in need of sublimation." (48)

The nativist, demagogue, anti-Catholic mayor Joseph Barker (1849) - "Pittsburgh's Catholic community feared violent attacks, and armed guards of parishioners often stood sentinel outside of churches...Barker had both the bishop [ first bishop Father Michael O'Connor] and the Mother Superior of Mercy Hospital arrested under the guise that their sewer line wasn't properly installed." (90)

Carnegie International - "A lesser-known artist who first made his appearance at the 1927 Carnegie International was a self-taught painter and Scottish-born Irish immigrant named John Kane, who lived among the steep rowhouses of working-class Greenfield." (116)
John Kane's Pittsburgh Pieta
https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/6...
"Kane replaced Jerusalem with Pittsburgh, depicting holiness's presence within the present, and the intrinsic beauty of every sacred moment." (116)

Joe Magarac - may have been an "invention" of a 1931 Scribner's Magazine article? "Magarac was a Pittsburgh equivalent of Paul Bunyan or John Henry, a genuine piece of oral storytelling born in the mills, bars, churches, and social organizations of Pittsburgh." (139)

I borrowed this book from the library, but if I ever come across it in a (used or independent) bookstore, I will buy it, perhaps multiple copies to give as gifts.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Alternative History of Pittsburgh
I recently read and very much enjoyed Simon’s The Soul of Pittsburgh: Essays on Life, Community and History, so I immediately read this one, too. Where The Soul of Pittsburgh: Essays on Life, Community and Historydiscusses Pittsburgh culture, this one digs into the city’s history. Like me, Simon has a deep love for our hometown. He is also a wonderful writer, who sees deep into the culture and history and Pittsburgh and can describe both beautifully.

He goes as far back as 300 million years to describe how the coal deposits – which millions of years later made Pittsburgh an industrial powerhouse – were initially created. He takes us back to a few centuries before the arrival of European people, to an age when a great native leader created a widespread and long-lasting peace in what is today the northeastern US.

All of the chapters are short, but enlightening. Some of the incidents covered are well known. Yes, we are the original home of Stephen Foster, Andy Warhol and the Republican Party. Others are less known. For instance, I belong to an Irish cultural group, yet I had never heard of the Fenian Raids until I read this book.

Even to well-known incidents, Simon manages to bring new light and perspective. And I love my alma mater even more now that I’ve read his account of the Cathedral of Learning.
If you love Pittsburgh, or are curious about Pittsburgh, read this book!

[Liana Chin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read. Tells histories of Pittsburgh through a collection of short stories, almost vignettes of certain times and years, pulling up names and important historical events as slices of a larger, long flowing narrative. The way the information is presented, i.e. in short stories, doesn't allow for a large amount of detail or information about each and every slice of time, and much of it is left unsaid or implied. This approach is considered from the start, when Ed Simon tries to answer the question of the "alternative" this book is trying to create. Rather than attempt to cover the great names or the great events of a city to the fullest, this book creates a sense of progression, as if each new year is just one day in a changing space with new faces and old buildings.

Simply put, this is a history book that tries to put vibes over details. By taking a high level approach to this history, we as readers don't get to see the details, however interesting or boring they may be, but maybe that's the point. As we live in an urban space we can't see all the moving parts or get to know every personal story; we learn about what we can see while life moves on. That's more what this book feels like, an experience of watching a city grow, and only being able to take with you what is most important.

[B Malley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a longer review half-written, but what it comes down to is I wanted this book to be something it wasn't trying to be, because I wanted it to be what I want to write. It's history told in fragments with citations and purple prose; it's not creative nonfiction of place.

If it were trying to be creative nonfiction, here's what I would've liked to see:
--Add repetition and returning to the fragmentary timeline; layer it, let themes surface. I love nonfiction that plays with space and time, so long as it plays. Also: The power of fragmentary storytelling is that depending on what snapshot you the writer share, you can hint at what you're not sharing and induce a kind of hunger.
--Add a dash of the personal; I love books that call attention to where the narrator stands in relation to what they're describing.
--Maaaaaybe tighten up the structure with a throughline in addition to the chronological setup.

On the whole, I'd recommend this book for those looking for trivia facts about Pittsburgh (I say that lovingly) and/or who want an overview of where they could possibly dive deeper into Pittsburgh's history - Ed Simon names a lot of the books from his research and that could be very useful.

[Thom DeLair]

I enjoyed this book. It's a short handful of interesting stories about Pittsburgh that's worth the small investment in time if you live in Western PA. Some of stories I knew and some I didn't. With that being said, there are a couple of issues I'll mention. First off, Simon loves the word "indelibly", in fact, he uses the word six times in this short book. It was indelibly annoying to me.

As far as historical facts:

-The chapter "The Great Peacemaker" has some fudge in it.

-Simon describes the Homestead Strike as happening when Carnegie was on vacation and nasty old Henry Frick just couldn't resist upsetting the labor. According to Age of Betrayal by Jack Beatty, Carnegie purposely put Frick up to changes in the labor agreement and then got out of town so Carnegie's hands would appear clean when the workers heard the bad news.

-While Pittsburgh has gotten some hype over the past few decades, the city proper continues to slowly decline in population, albeit less then in the late twentieth century.

The intro and closing seemed a bit forced, which is a shame because I thought over all the book was a nice collection of essays about the city.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories Simon tells allow you to forgive the quirky editing. Each chapter is about the same three-page length, but within that framework the arc of each narrative varies widely. Some are straight-up facts, others wind up with the descriptive you-are-here starts that want to show you this nonfiction writer can be lyrical, too.

Whatever Simon's intent with the structure, it can't hide how fascinating Pittsburgh history is. I have only been there once, ages ago, and my visit consisted of a day in a conference room and a night at a bar on the top of the Monongahela Incline. Everyone should have an experience in their life that includes the name Monongahela.

Steel city, site of many important colonial-era events half-remembered by history, Andy Warhol's birthplace -- Pittsburgh is a bigger city in influence than given credit for. Between the building material and material builders like Carnegie and Mellon, the city seems to have birthed then adopted out its influential offspring, without being able to keep much for itself. I want to be wrong.

[April Bonifate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was carrying this one around for a long time and reading chapters whenever I remembered I had it in my bag. Prior to reading, I thought I knew about a lot of niche events in Pittsburgh history, but I learned about a lot of new moments in our past through this book. For some of the moments mentioned, such as the Pittsburgh fire and the corrupt mayor, I ended up going down Wikipedia wormholes, so I always love a book that can spark that type of interest where I can’t stop researching more. I do think that the writing was not necessarily hard to comprehend, but there were a lot of phrases with complex wording that may have been there just to make simple phrases sounds more academic. This can be a good technique, but it was sometimes happening multiple times in a sentence, so it was difficult to follow the text in some cases. Still, I think that this book offers a good intro to some little known (and some well-known) bits of Pittsburgh history and was a good book to have around to read a chapter or two from at a time.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in all, I enjoyed reading this little book about Pittsburgh. My favorite parts were the histories from the 20th century about the folklore of Joe Magarac, the Vanka Murals in Millvale, Frank Lloyd Wright's crazy coked up plan for the point, and the makings of August Wilson and Rachel Carson. However, I was disappointed that Simon doesn't take a stab at tell an overarching story about Pittsburgh.

The book is composed of brief entries– structured chronologically– and each is pretty satisfying. Simon embraces concision, and the sections are written without introductions or conclusions. Its cool, but without formal storytelling structures I often found myself wondering what I had just read. Did I learn anything? Maybe, maybe not.

[Scott Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful short incisive history of Pittsburgh. It doesn't say much about the past 40 years or so, but gives great snapshots of critical events in this history. I learned a lot from it. Every short chapter references several other histories, so he did quite a bit of research for this book. It would have been great to add a bibliography at the end. In the Andy Warhol chapter he also should have added the story of how Warhol almost got kicked out of the University and was rescued by my Great-Uncle Sam Rosenberg, the pre-eminent Pittsburgh painter who was also not in this book. But despite its flaws it was a great read. The writing was also excellent! I need to buy several more copies for friends.

[Josa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't know much about Pittsburgh, there's a good chance what you know is "Sports" or "Steel" or maybe even "lung problems". This book gives a decent overview of some of the country's firsts that happened in Pittsburgh that may or may not align with those three "common knowledge" points. You get a decent chunk of pre-colonisation history that is definitely missed in most history books of the USA and a sprinkle of events related to other big American events. General subjects that get touched on are revolutions, industrialization, political movements, and social reforms. If you're new to Pittsburgh or want a reference guide for your own further research, I'd recommend starting here!

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great telling of some of the not always known bullet points of Pittsburgh history. As I read, I shared information with people who live or have lived in the city and not all of the city’s early history is known. It was good to learn this. Also, some famous people, places or situations we knew of but not in their entirety.
This book evokes a lot of hometown pride. I think it can be read and enjoyed by those familiar with the city as well as those who are not and want to learn. However, I would recommend it as required reading for those born and raised in Pittsburgh. One should know the history of where they live.

[Caitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of vignettes that share the history of Pittsburgh, but also really the history of the industrial revolution and the postindustrial changes of the US as a whole. Stories that make Pittsburgh Pittsburgh. I kind of wanted the book to tie it a bit more together, but that is difficult as history doesn’t’ necessarily work that way. There were a lot of interesting facts I didn’t previously know however.

Why Pittsburgh recovered better than the rest of the rust belt is of course something hard to answer.

[Charvi Rastogi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 maybe. As a resident of Pittsburgh for a while now, I learnt a ton about Pittsburgh's rich history, some facts mainly to be pulled out as a party trick. The historical contextualisation of streets I have walked for half a decade now makes me more favorable.

The book isn't technically strong, with the author often taking leaps of faith regarding the role of Pittsburgh on world's stage, and waxing eloquent about its enduring spirit. However, I enjoyed the anthology like structure covering the history through tiny snapshots in time.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy read, poetic in its drop-ins throughout Pittsburgh history, this is one of my favorites in narrative history from the last few years. Acknowledging the way the land was taken, the way the working class that typifies and symbolizes the city have been trod upon - this is no whitewash of history. Neither is it exhaustive (it doesn’t try to be). It’s a collage of moments. It’s a beautiful little text. I recommend it.

[Mell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would describe this as a collection of essays about historical eras, people, and events in what we currently know as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They're in "historical order" beginning with the earliest Indigenous settlements.

This isn't a continuous history, and that was fine as I read. Some entries are written in a dry (almost dull) tone, others are more engaging due to rich detail. This makes the book feel a bit inconsistent, but the content is definitely informative.

[Howard J. Kalson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grew Up In Pittsburgh

This book has lots of history that I never knew about much less understood. Pittsburgh still has a unique soul all its own, whatever one may think. I like to think that I still carry within me what I call my “Inner Pittsburgh”. This book describes as well as any what happens when corporate greed takes over. The working folks seem to always come out on the short end of the stick.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOWOWOWOWOW. My favorite read in a long, long time. So incredibly well-written and well-researched without leaving the reader feeling as like they need to have so much prior knowledge in order to read and enjoy. This is an absolutely essential Pittsburgher read.