David R. Contosta – författare

Villanova University is one of the nation's oldest and largest Catholic universities. Founded in 1842 by the Augustinian order, which continues to support the institution today, Villanova has seen great change and great continuity over its 150-year history. In Villanova University, 1842–1992, historian David Contosta presents a rich combination of text and photographs to recount the history of the school and the forces that shaped its growth.Unlike a traditional commissioned history, Contosta's account shows Villanova in the wider context of American society. He closely examines the American culture, Catholic attitudes and beliefs, and Augustinian order that he finds were most influential in forming Villanova as we know it today.

For more than seventy-five years, the Carson Valley School has served the needs of orphaned girls and other dependent children from Philadelphia and neighboring Pennsylvania counties. Its hundred-acre campus is remarkable for its rolling terrain, neo-medieval buildings, and design as a fantasy village.A legacy of the progressive education movement of the early decades of the twentieth century, the school was formally opened in 1918 as the Carson College for Orphan Girls. Its first president, Elsa Ueland, was a former settlement house worker who was a student of John Dewey and Maria Montessori, and her life story is closely intertwined with that of the school she oversaw for nearly half a century. The institution was originally endowed by the $5 million estate of Philadelphia trolley magnate Robert N. Carson, who had stipulated in his will that it could receive only white, parentless girls. Over the decades, Ueland and her successors were able to remove these restrictions, so that by the 1970s Carson Valley was admitting children regardless of race or gender, as well as neglected and dependent youths whose needs were every bit as pressing as those of orphans of earlier times. David Contosta's history of Carson Valley shows that it has long been a model of progressive education. Its faculty is dedicated to serving the individual needs of each child, preparing students to enter the workplace, and breaking down artificial barriers between school and the outside world. Drawing on Ueland's personal papers to communicate both her hopes for the Progressive era and her achievements during the early years of the school, Contosta tells how teachers and housemothers forged a unique collaboration that joined home and school in ways that other progressive educators could only dream of. He also notes the architectural significance of its enchanting facilities, which have played an integral part in the institution's treatment program. Philadelphia's Progressive Orphanage clearly shows not only how Carson Valley has been shaped by a multitude of social, cultural, and political forces, but also how many of the reforms of the Progressive era remain in place today. It establishes Carson's place in the history of education and child welfare and makes an important contribution to renewed debate about orphanages and dependent child care.

The history of the Diocese of Pennsylvania is in many ways a history of the Episcopal Church at large. It remains one of the largest and most influential dioceses in the national church. Its story has paralleled and illustrated the challenges and accomplishments of the wider denomination—and of issues that concern the American people as a whole. In This Far by Faith, ten professional historians provide the first complete history of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. It will become essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and significance of the Episcopal Church and of its evolution in the Greater Philadelphia area.Aside from the editor, the contributors are Charles Cashdollar, Marie Conn, William W. Cutler III, Deborah Mathias Gough, Ann Greene, Sheldon Hackney, Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner, William Pencak, and Thomas F. Rzeznik.

Three generations of the Houston-Woodward family, one of the wealthiest and most influential in Philadelphia, have been leaders in politics, diplomacy, suburban planning, housing reform, land conservation, and historic preservation.In A Philadelphia Family, David Contosta analyzes the impact the Houstons and Woodwards have had economically, politically, and demographically on Philadelphia, a city known for its reserved and private leading families. The story of the Houston and Woodward families' continuing public service offers a unique perspective on Philadelphia history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Family founder Henry Howard Houston (1820-1895) was one of America's greatest post-Civil War entrepreneurs, a top executive of the Pennsylvania Railroad as well as a leading speculator in oil, mining, and other railroad ventures. Houston created a unique, planned suburb in Chestnut Hill, which his son Samuel and son-in-law George Woodward maintained and expanded in the twentieth century. Woodward, in particular, became an energetic crusader for housing reform.Other family members have distinguished themselves in government service and charitable work. Stanley Woodward served in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, George Woodward was a state senator for 30 years, and Lawrence M. C. Smith was founder and owner of a prominent classical music station in Philadelphia.