Penn Press Log

Israel Independence Day Reading

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

A bestseller in Israel, Yigal Allon, Native Son is the only biography of the charismatic leader. Born in 1918 into the fabric of Arab-Jewish frontier life at the foot of Mt. Tabor, Allon rose to become commander of the Palmah, one of the founding figures of the state of Israel and an architect of its politics. The book  focuses on Allon's life up to 1950, his clash with founding father David Ben-Gurion, the end of his military career, and the watershed in culture and character between the Jewish Yishuv and Israeli statehood.

The story of Allon's life frames the history of Israel, its relationship with its Arab neighbors, its culture and spirit. This biography touches on matters--Israel's borders, refugees, military might--that remain very much alive today.

Human Rights in the Arab World--Now in Paperback

Human Rights in the Arab World: Independent Voices
Edited by Anthony Chase and Amr Hamzawy
336 pages | 6 x 9
Paper 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2032-2 | $24.95 | £16.50
A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series

This is the first book in English that draws together the work of intellectuals at the forefront of research on the Arab region's key human rights issues. Its empirical and theoretical focus is on the historical and contemporary place of human rights in Arab politics and the obstacles to advancing rights in the region.

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

Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden--Now Available

Place and Memory in the Singing Crane Garden
Vera Schwarcz
296 pages | 6 x 9 | 44 illus.
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4100-6 | $55.00 | £36.00
A volume in the Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture series

The Singing Crane Garden in northwest Beijing has been the site of several important and cataclysmic events in modern Chinese history. In this poetic and highly personal study of memory, trauma, and cultural renewal, Schwarcz brings to life the complex history of a richly layered corner of China's much traversed yet little known cultural landscape.

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

Aceh, Indonesia--Now Available

Aceh, Indonesia: Securing the Insecure State
Elizabeth F. Drexler
296 pages | 6 x 9 | 9 illus.
Cloth 2008 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4057-3 | $59.95 | £39.00
A volume in the Ethnography of Political Violence series

"A needed critique of the often-romanticized vision of 'reconciliation through truth commissions' for nations caught up in historical cycles of violence."--Susan Rodgers, College of the Holy Cross "Elizabeth Drexler's sensitive treatment of Aceh's recent history is an invaluable contribution to the debate."--Goenawan Mohamad, author of Conversations with Difference

Read more . . .

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

Sageman Offers "Common Sense"

"[Marc] Sageman takes the common sense view that you can't defeat an enemy until you know them and understand what drives them," writes David Isenberg in an Asia Times review of the forthcoming Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century.

The complete review is available at www.atimes.com.

Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone--Now Available

Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone: Gender and Politics in Sri Lanka
Sandya Hewamanne
296 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus.
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4045-0 | $59.95 | £39.00
A volume in the Contemporary Ethnography series

By analyzing how Sri Lankan free trade zone factory workers claim political subjectivity and revealing a vibrant subaltern political universe where they can express alternative perspectives, Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone challenges conventional notions about marginalized women at the bottom of the global economy.

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

Ethnic Identity in Tang China--Now Available

Ethnic Identity in Tang China
Marc S. Abramson
288 pages | 6 x 9
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4052-8 | $55.00 | £36.00
A volume in the Encounters with Asia series

"The author has ranged far and wide, plucking nuggets of material from dynastic histories, gazetteers, contemporary scholarly treatises, memorials to the emperor, poetry, and artwork. This is a groundbreaking book."--Peter B. Golden, Rutgers University

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

The Prehistory of the Silk Road--Now Available

The Prehistory of the Silk Road
E. E. Kuzmina Edited by Victor H. Mair
264 pages | 6 x 9 | 73 illus.
Cloth 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4041-2 | $65.00 | £42.50
A volume in the Encounters with Asia series

"A major advance in the field of the early history and archaeology of central Asia."--Nicola Di Cosmo, Institute for Advanced Study

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

Burma (Myanmar) Cut Off from the Net

Ko Htike, a Burmese blogger now living in the United Kingdom, has been cut off from his source of images from home. Today he wrote in his blog ko htike's prosaic collection:

"Dear All,

I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the internet connection throughout the country. I therefore would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta.

I will also try my best to feed in their demonic appetite of fear and paranoia by posting any pictures that I receive though other means (Journos!! please don’t ask me what other means would be??). I will continue to live with the motto that “if there is a will there is a way”.

We probably need to lobby the  Chinese government or UN envoy to Burma to ask the junta to switch on the Internet. Please!"

Cutting off the outside world is nothing new to repressive regimes, which have shown an alarming ability to keep pace with communications technology. In Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear, anthropologist Monique Skidmore described the power of government censorship to produce the troubling side effect of self-censorship.

The hands-on approach to destroying visual images, reducing international broadcasts to state, and destroying literary  and artistic works that may contain guarded political or economic commentary  is undoubtedly crude but effective. However, the long-term and ultimately more efficient result of such manual censorship involves the waves of panic, fear, suspicion, and rumor that such censorship evokes. Each time an act of censorship is witnessed or rumored, many frightened Burmese begin a process of self-censorship.

Dramatic Impressions--Now Available

Dramatic Impressions: Japanese Theatre Prints from the Gilbert Luber Collection
Frank L. Chance and Julie Nelson Davis. Edited by Dilys Winegrad
64 pages | 8 1/2 x 11 | 55 color illus.
Paper 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8122-1985-2 | $24.95 | £16.50

Produced in conjunction with an exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Ross Gallery, this catalogue highlights 71 masterworks from Gilbert Luber's stellar collection of nineteenth-century actor prints and images by the master Osaka artist Natori Shunsen (1886-1960).

Read more . . .

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