Join Pittsburgh native Ed Simon for a deep dive into the forgotten or overlooked moments in the City of Bridges' history
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.”
Order An Alternative History of Pittsburgh now
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. This brief, lyrical, and idiosyncratic collection 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 the incoming Executive Director of Belt Media Collaborative and the Editor-in-Chief for Belt Magazine, 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, including An Alternative History of Pittsburgh and most recently Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Poetry, McSweeney’s, and The New York Times among dozens of others. Originally a native of Pittsburgh, he has lived in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, and now his hometown again.