Book Review: A Concise History of Philadelphia

Today I review:

A Concise History of Philadelphia by Ron Avery

Rating: 6 out of 10

                                                                  
Pros: Delivers what it promises: A concise history of Philadelphia...and an interesting one at that written in a Howard Zinn type style.

Cons: Written in 1999.  Bragging about all the meat those in Philadelphia eat (for two sentences).

My husband picked this book up while in Philadelphia.  In general, I enjoyed a Concise History of Philadelphia.  I liked that it is very much a peoples' history of Philadelphia.  It seemed to present a honest look at the problems that Philadelphia faced, including extreme corruption to the point of making it highly questionable that Philadelphia was even a democracy for parts of Philadelphia's history.  I liked that it was not a mindless patriotic view of the city, that it was a honest account.

I thought the parts on William Penn were particularly interesting.  I didn't realize until I read this book that both William Penn and Benjamin Franklin were slave owners (although Franklin by the end of his life would oppose slavery).  This book showed that in particular Penn was far from the ideal figure I often envisioned him to be.

The one negative part was when the author became a meat head idiot for 2 sentences bragging about all the meat those in Philadelphia eat.