PositiveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMr. Whitaker, a New York journalist and former Newsweek editor with deep family roots in black Pittsburgh, does a thorough, convincing and footnote-free job of making his case ... Smoketown is an enjoyable and rewarding trip to a forgotten special place and time, but it isn’t perfect. Mr. Whitaker, who doesn’t seem to have an angry bone in his body or an ideological ax to grind with anyone or anything, isn’t as clear as he could have been about the Courier’s house politics ... But quibbles aside, with the publication of Mr. Whitaker’s enjoyable and long-overdue time trip back to Smoketown, he and Simon & Schuster have given the Hill District and its talented ghosts the national props they’ve always deserved.
