(2016) "Serious Nonsense" introduces readers to Pennsylvania German cultural practices that tourists rarely see and that outsiders, including most scholars, rarely learn about. The book explores the origins of the versammlinge and details the practice’s significance since the 1930s, when the first meetings of the Pennsylvania German groundhog lodges were held. Much as they did then, versammlinge today follow a pattern of prayers, patriotism, and speeches extolling values associated with Pennsylvania German identity, as well as theatrical and oral events that humorously contrast a simpler past with a more complex and confusing present. And the groundhog lodges feature one Pennsylvania German tradition that has become familiar in popular culture: groundhog weather prognostication.
Escaping Confederate Prisons: The Journey of Union POWs, Civil War Institute
"The Miners of Windber: The Struggles of New Immigrants for Unionization, 1890s-1930s" PA Books - Pennsylvania's Neighborhood: Somerset
Charles E. Hires and the Drink that Wowed a Nation, PA Books