Guest Post Patrick Brown

The Story Behind Industrial Pioneers

by Patrick Brown

Industrial Pioneers began as my senior history thesis at Georgetown University. While searching for a topic, I was drawn to the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where I have family roots. I
stumbled on some basic facts about the growth of Scranton in the nineteenth century
that convinced me that the city had a story to tell—it had grown from 100 to
100,000 people in just sixty years, it produced the steel, iron and coal for an
industrializing America, and was “the Electric City” when electricity was the
most exciting innovation in the world. While a great deal of information about Scranton during the
nineteenth century was available, and a great deal had been written about that
general period in American history, I realized that no author had written a
comprehensive account of Scranton
in the nineteenth century. I sensed an opportunity.

The question underlying Industrial Pioneers is how people adapted their worldviews in response to the extraordinary changes that shaped Scranton in the nineteenth century. I began researching
online and in the Georgetown
library, and quickly realized that I needed more resources. I travelled to Scranton, where I found
rare books about the city’s early history at the Albright Memorial Library and
the Lackawanna Historical Society. When I returned, I began writing. I decided
to divide my book into four chapters, each of which corresponded with a
distinct mindset that residents of Scranton
held, and worked on them one by one.

I finished the thesis by May of my senior year of college, and began teaching in the Mississippi Delta the next year. During my first year of teaching, I worked with the Lackawanna Historical
Society and Tribute Books to get Industrial
Pioneers published. To revise my thesis I went through two rounds of edits
with two different editors, revised the introduction and conclusion, compiled
an index, assembled a timeline, took an author photo, chose a cover image,
sought out endorsements, and worked to find media outlets that might be
interested in the book. I sent the information to the publisher and waited. The
book was released this past summer.

Patrick Brown was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He graduated Magna
cum Laude from Georgetown
University, where he won
the Morris Medal for best senior history honors thesis. He currently teaches
high school social studies in the Mississippi
Delta through Teach for America.

His latest book is Industrial Pioneers: Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Transformation of America, 1840-1902, a detailed history account of the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

You can visit his website at http://www.industrialpioneers.com.

What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook & Linkedin. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can
also follow us on Twitter, and the Gelati’s Scoop Facebook Fan Page. Did you
know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati’s Store Tab on our
blog? Thanks for stopping by today; We
will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.
http://www.gelatisscoop.blogspot.com