Prof: Philadelphia full of ghosts of past

Walking around Philadelphia reminds Penn alumnus Steven Conn of the blockbuster movie The Sixth Sense.

"This region lives with its own ghosts," Conn said.

Conn presented his book, Metropolitan Philadelphia: Living with the Presence of the Past, in front of an audience of about a dozen at the Penn Bookstore Friday evening.

His goal in the book was to focus on Philadelphia's surroundings as well as the city itself.

In order to look at the city from a fresh perspective, Conn said he left the usual framework of "starting with William Penn, moving to Franklin and then on to the Industrial Revolution" for a series of five themes in which he "bounces between past and present."

He did address William Penn in the first part of his book, but in the context of the ideas of tolerance, freedom, and openness which he characterized as "still [here] today."

To discover how these ideas further influenced the development of the city, Conn met with various Quaker organizations.

When describing the second theme of the book, Conn alluded to ghosts as a way to illustrate how the past looms in the streets of Philadelphia.

"The town feels the past," Conn said.

He added that because Philadelphia has more of a connection to the past than other American cities, novelist Henry James, who "loathed America and loved Europe," felt at home.

Conn also looked at how Philadelphia helped to create a middle class by being the first American city to have single-family homes.

Conn attempted to "strip away the politics" by exploring the geography and features of the region.

He believes that the area's two main rivers, the Schuylkill and the Delaware, were essential to the development of the region.

"The rivers made this region possible," Conn said.

Metropolitan Philadelphia book is part of a series from the University of Pennsylvania Press called "Metropolitan Portraits."According to Conn, the goal of the series is to "break down divisions about how we look at metropolitan centers."

The audience was very receptive to Conn's ideas, and many of them lined up to have him sign their copies of his book.

"I'm interested in the ghosts and how they influence our past, present and even future," Penn Career Services Director Patricia Rose said.

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