J Lenni Dorner

This book reads the way a TV documentary sounds. Chapter 3 has valuable insights and I wish more people knew these details. I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in history, especially early American history.
A fascinating factoid from the book:
Pennsylvania's homicide rate in the 1720's alone exceeded London's rate for all of the 18th century.
(Every time a politician talks about violence like it's a new problem, think about that fact.)
There is excellent insight to how the European settlers created poverty in a land that once had none. Then sections that show how they complained that people they made poor were now in poverty and, as such, a burden. There's even an excellent description of what a poorhouse was and how it came to exist.
The book reveals Pennsylvania's false history, the settlers lie that there was an absolute extinction of all Indians in Pennsylvania. Hannah's death was part of their evidence. But the book also mentions that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission reports 50,000 PA residents with Native American lineage, some of who are Lenni-Lenape like myself.
The reasons I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 are as follows:
I'm not sure that the Shackamoxon meeting under the Elm tree is actually well known by all Pennsylvanian children, though it should be. How the actual "naming" process works isn't revealed until page 78, so it might be confusing as to how the Lenapes names are assigned or assumed by the colonists before that section. The difference between Minsi and Munsee should have been touched upon, especially given how often people mistakenly use them interchangeably. Page 115 starts using the term "The Delawares" without mentioning how that name came into use, or who Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr is. The Walking Purchase mentions the runners, but doesn't note the wildly boasted— that they were identical siblings. (This cheating strategy is well known enough to be parodied in modern comedies.)