Matthew C. Ward, Breaking the Back country: The Seven Years' War in Virginia and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003. Maps, photos, 329 pps., $34.95.
Cumberland Justice: Legal Practice in Cumberland County 1750 - 2000 by the Cumberland County Bar Association. Carlisle, PA: Cumberland County Bar Association, 2001. Index, hardback. $39.95.
Raphael S. Hays II, John Hays: Civil War Soldier; Lawyer; Businessman. (Carlisle 250th Anniversary Committee, 2000). Illustrated. Paperback $10.00
Kevin Patrick, Pennsylvania Caves & Other Rocky Roadside Wonders. Stackpole Books, 2004. Photographs, maps, diagrams, visitor information, bibliography, index, 248 pages, paperback $19.95.
Hermann Wellenreuther and Carola Wessel, editors, The Moravian Mission Diaries of David Zeisberger 1772-1781. Penn State University Press, 2005. Maps, appendix, register of persons, index of place and river names and other geographical terms, bibliography, and index, 666 pages, hardcover $65.00.
The Selected Letters of Marianne Moore, edited by Bonnie Costello, Celeste Goodridge, and Cristanne Miller. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, 1997, cloth $35, xv, 597; index; ISBN 0-679-43909-9; paperback $15.95. ISBN 0-14-118120-6
Conrad Richter, The Waters of Kronos. University Park PA: Penn State University Press, 2003. Pp. 176, $16.95
Brian Lockman, World War II in Their Own Words. Stackpole Books, 2005. Photographs, timeline, maps, bibliography, index, 251 pages, paperback $19.95.
Arthur P. Miller, Jr., and Marjorie L. Miller, Guide to the Homes of Famous Pennsylvanians: Houses, Museums, and Landmarks. Mechanicsburg PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. Photos, 224pp., $18.95.
At an academic conference on Marianne Moore, I needled one of the editors of Moore's letters for writing assertively that in 1896 the Moore family moved from Pittsburgh to "nearby Carlisle." Even a century later, with a turnpike, the trip is four and a half hours by a fast car; at the end of the nineteenth century, it must have been akin to burning your bridges behind you. "Oh, that's all right," said this professor from Pomona College, "from California every place in Pennsylvania is nearby." If unguarded, perspective can trump historical reality every time.