Clarke Thomas has compiled a two-hundred-year history of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette," the first paper published west of the Alleghenies. From the Whiskey Rebellion to the present, the stories the paper covered reveal the history of Pittsburgh and the people who live there.

Clarke M. Thomas, was a combat infantryman in World War II, spent forty-three years as a newspaperman in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. In 1997 he received the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania President's Award "in recognition of outstanding career achievement and contributions to Western Pennsylvania journalism."