Penn Press Log

Yigal Allon, Native Son--Now Available

Yigal Allon, Native Son: A Biography
Anita Shapira Translated by Evelyn Abel
392 pages | 6 x 9 | 29 illus.
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4028-3 | $49.95 | £32.50
A volume in the Jewish Culture and Contexts series

Recipient of the Zalman Shazar Award for Research in Jewish History

"A superb biography. . . . Few Israelis have radiated the legendary aura that surrounded Yigal Allon."--Jerusalem Post "

Anita Shapira has written a very readable, wise, often eye-opening and captivating book."--Ha'aretz

A best-selling biography in Israel, available for the first time in the English language.

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Wonderful Blood--Now in Paperback

Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond
Caroline Walker Bynum
456 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 34 illus.
Cloth 2006 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3985-0 | $49.95 | £32.50
Paper 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2019-3 | $24.95 | £16.50
A volume in the Middle Ages Series

Recipient of the 2007 Award for Excellence in the Historical Study of Religion from the American Academy of Religion

"For three decades now, Bynum has been pivotal in drawing the attention even of nonspecialists to some of the overlooked, sophisticated conceptions that late medieval piety developed of personal identity, death, redemption, gender, asceticism, and the body. She now zooms in on and brilliantly illuminates the equally complex and equally crucial issue of blood. . . . Her empathy with medieval Christians has allowed her to put her finger on one of their key concerns, and Wonderful Blood should refocus the study of late medieval piety once more."--Times Literary Supplement

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

The Sex Lives of Saints--Now in Paperback

The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography
Virginia Burrus
224 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2003 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3745-0 | $45.00 | £29.50
Paper 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2020-9 | $22.50 | £15.00
A volume in the Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series

"A dazzling series of readings of early Christian hagiographies that will, by turns, delight, confound, illuminate, and challenge diverse historians, theologians, and theorists."--Church History

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Irish Politics and Social Conflict--Now in Paperback

Irish Politics and Social Conflict in the Age of the American Revolution
Maurice R. O'Connell
464 pages | 5 1/4 x 8 | 16 illus.
Paper 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2010-0 | $26.50 | £17.50

"The most concise introductory narrative of the Irish response to the American Revolution."--Andrew O'Shaughnessy, author of An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

New Sugrue Review in The Nation

In the November 12, 2007 issue of The Nation, Penn Press series editor Thomas J. Sugrue has some interesting things to say about the late Albert Shanker, a figure of note in two new books, White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics by Joshua M. Zeitz and Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race, and Democracy by Richard D. Kahlenberg. Sugrue writes:

The lead character in Woody Allen's 1973 hit Sleeper wakes up from his 200-year slumber to discover that civilization was destroyed when "a man by the name of Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead." Shanker, a lifelong socialist, leader of the American Federation of Teachers, political gadfly and tireless educational reformer, seemed an unlikely agent of apocalypse. But Sleeper's laugh line contained more than a little radioactive truth. The man named Albert Shanker did not drop the bomb on liberalism. But he was no small part of a political and intellectual Manhattan Project that exploited the fractures of New Deal and Great Society liberalism and empowered the New Right to rebuild from the rubble.

The complete article is available at TheNation.com.

Thomas J. Sugrue is coeditor of W. E. B. Du Bois, Race, and the City: "The Philadelphia Negro" and Its Legacy and an editor of the Penn Press series Politics and Culture in Modern America.

Academic Blogging Point/Counter Point

A recent ACRLog post provides handy links to two recent Inside Higher Ed pieces on the pros and cons of academic blogging.

Producing Fashion--Now Available

Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers
Edited by Regina Lee Blaszczyk
376 pages | 6 x 9 | 30 illus.
Cloth Nov 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4037-5 | $55.00 | £36.00
A volume in the Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture series

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

Medicine Bundle--Now Available

Medicine Bundle: Indian Sacred Performance and American Literature, 1824-1932
Joshua David Bellin
272 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4034-4 | $55.00 | £36.00

Joshua David Bellin examines the complex issues surrounding Indian sacred performance in its manifold and intimate relationships with texts and images by both Indians and whites.

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.

The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times--Now Available

The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Jonathan Karp, Editors
464 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 59 illus.
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4002-3 | $49.95 | £32.50
A volume in the Jewish Culture and Contexts series

This richly illustrated volume illuminates how the arts have helped Jews confront the challenges of modernity. There truly is an art to being Jewish in the modern world--or, alternatively, an art of being modern in the Jewish world--and this collection fully captures its range, diversity, and historical significance.

Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.
Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here.