Penn Press Log

Untimely Matter in the Time of Shakespeare--Now in Paperback

Untimely Matter in the Time of Shakespeare
Jonathan Gil Harris
288 pages | 6 x 9 | 8 illus.
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4118-1 | $59.95 | £39.00
Paper 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2146-6 | $24.95 | £16.50

"It is difficult to do justice here to the extraordinarily wide range of critical and theoretical models that Harris draws on, or the ease with which he brings them together. . . . Harris's book is important . . . not only for its fine discussions of individual works but also for setting a yardstick for the work that early modernists might do in this area, and for the form that a 'turn to time' might take."--TLS

Jonathan Gil Harris challenges the way we conventionally understand physical objects. Turning to Renaissance theories of matter, he considers the profound untimeliness of things, focusing particularly on Shakespeare's stage materials.

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Civil Rights Advocacy on Behalf of the Poor--Now Available

Civil Rights Advocacy on Behalf of the Poor
Catherine M. Paden
240 pages | 6 x 9 | 13 illus.
Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4297-3 | $55.00 | £36.00
A volume in the American Governance: Politics, Policy, and Public Law series

"Catherine M. Paden takes a fresh look at an extremely important but understudied topic, examining the circumstances under which 'identity-based' advocacy organizations represent disadvantaged subpopulations of larger constituencies. Her findings are original, compelling, and provocative."--Dara Z. Strolovitch, University of Minnesota

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Beneke and Grenda's The First Prejudice on the Religion and American History Blog

The Religion and American History Blog recently posted an interview with Chris Beneke, co-editor with Christopher S. Grenda of The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America. In the Q & A with Randall Stephens, Beneke discusses the themes of the historical essay collection and how they relate to contemporary political and religious debates in the United States.

"The First Prejudice supplies a broader (if I were immodest, Randall, I would say 'essential') context for historians who are looking at the intentions of the founders and the political, cultural, and juridical legacies that developed thereafter," says Beneke.

The Religion and American History Blog also posted a brief review of The First Prejudice in early February. In the review, Paul Harvey writes:

[The First Prejudice] provides just the kind of first-class scholarly analysis that one would hope for, and will be an absolutely essential text for university libraries. Perhaps most importantly, the editors don't try to elide or explain away the differing arguments put forth by the various authors, but include a sterling introduction which explains and sets in context some of the major debates in this field.

Harvey also gives a "shout out" to Penn Press for publishing other studies of religion in America's politics and past, such as Bodies of Belief: Baptist Community in Early America, W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet, and Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South.

Now Available-Judaism and Christian Art

Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to Colonialism
Edited by Herbert L. Kessler and David Nirenberg
456 pages | 7 x 10 | 110 illus.
Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4285-0 | $69.95 | £45.50

Christian cultures across the centuries have invoked Judaism in order to debate, represent, and contain the dangers presented by the sensual nature of art. By engaging Judaism, both real and imagined, they explored and expanded the perils and possibilities for Christian representation of the material world. Read more . . .

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Specters of Paul-Now Available

Specters of Paul: Sexual Difference in Early Christian Thought
Benjamin H. Dunning
272 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth Mar 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4307-9 | $55.00 | £36.00
A volume in the Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series

Benjamin H. Dunning explores the variety of approaches to sexual difference in second- and third-century Christian thought with particular attention to the ways in which the legacy of the apostle Paul fueled, shaped, and also constrained approaches to the issue. Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.

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Narrating the Law-Now Available

Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories
Barry Scott Wimpfheimer
264 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4299-7 | $59.95 | £39.00
A volume in the Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion series

Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories creates a new theoretical framework for considering the relationship between law and narrative, models a new method of studying Talmudic law, and fills out the picture of the cultural life of the rabbis who contributed to the Talmud. Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.

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Chinese Glazes-Now in Paperback

Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry, and Recreation
Nigel Wood
272 pages | 8 1/2 x 11 | 100 color, 180 b/w illus.
Cloth 1999 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3476-3 | $59.95 | £39.00
Paper 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2143-5 | $45.00 | £29.50
Not for sale in the British Commonwealth, except Canada, or in Europe

Traces the development of Chinese glazes and glazing techniques from antiquity to the modern era. Nigel Wood describes how glazes were made, provides an analysis of their composition, and shows how they can be duplicated today with common raw materials available in the West. Read more . . .

Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Ellen Trachtenberg.

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James M. Powell

University of Pennsylvania Press staff members were saddened by news of the death of .James M. Powell, Professor of History Emeritus at Syracuse University. Powell wrote Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221, Albertanus of Brescia: The Pursuit of Happiness in the Early Thirteenth Century, and many other noteworthy books and articles in medieval studies. Powell was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University,  a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a founding member of the Midwest Medieval History Conference. More information about his life and work may be found in his obituary, published in the Syracuse Post Standard.

From Dictatorship to Democracy-Now Available

From Dictatorship to Democracy: An Insider's Account of the Iraqi Opposition to Saddam
Hamid al-Bayati. Foreword by Peter Galbraith
304 pages | 6 x 9 | illus.
Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4288-1 | $34.95 | £23.00

Iraqi UN Ambassador and former opposition leader Hamid al-Bayati provides first-hand information on the meetings and discussions that led the United States and United Kingdom to move from inaction to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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