An Alternative History of Pittsburgh

Ed Simon tells the story of Pittsburgh through this exploration of its hidden histories--the LA Review of Books calls it an ＂epic, atomic history of the Steel City.＂

The land surrounding the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers has supported communities of humans for millennia. Over the past four centuries, however, it has been transformed countless times by the many people who call it home. In this brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic collection, Ed Simon, a staff writer atThe Millions, follows the story of America’s furnace through a series of interconnected segments, covering all manner of Pittsburgh-beloved people, places, and things, including:

- Paleolithic Pittsburgh

- The Whiskey Rebellion

- The attempted assassination of Henry Frick

- The Harmonists

- The Mystery, Pittsburgh’s radical, Black nationalist newspaper

- The myth of Joe Magarac

- Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Andy Warhol, and much, much more.

Accessible and funny, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh is a must-read for anyone curious about this storied city, and for Pittsburghers who think they know it all too well already.

Ed Simon is an Editor-at-Large for The Marginalia Review of Books, a channel of The Los Angeles Review of Books, a contributing editor for the History News Network, and a staff writer at The Millions, which the New York Times has called the ＂indispensable literary site.＂ He is the author of several books, most recently Furnace of this World; or, 36 Observations about Goodness. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Poetry, McSweeney’s, Aeon, Jacobin, Salon, The New Republic and The New York Times among dozens of others. A native of Pittsburgh, he currently lives in Washington, DC.