Penn Press Log

This Week's New Books--Beggar Thy Neighbor and As American as Shoofly Pie

Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt Charles R. Geisst 400 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4462-5 | $39.95 | £26.00 From the Roman Empire to the most recent financial crisis, this comprehensive economic history examines humanity's attempts to curb the abuse of debt while reaping the benefits of credit. Read more . .

As American as Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine William Woys Weaver 336 pages | 6 x 9 | 59 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4479-3 | $34.95 | £23.00 Not for sale outside North America Celebrated food historian and cookbook writer William Woys Weaver delves deeply into the history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine to sort fact from fiction in the foodlore of this unique American culture. Read more . . .

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

Win A Free Copy of Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia

Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics, and the Building of Modern Philadelphia, by economic development consultant Gregory L. Heller, is the first biography of this charismatic but controversial figure.

"Edmund Bacon, probably the most relentless and determined of all planners, believed that the most important and difficult thing to do was deciding what to advocate and that the trick in making that decision was selecting something that you could bring to fruition. . . . We are fortunate in having this stunning biography by Gregory Heller. The result is an engrossing story explaining how modern Philadelphia took shape."--From the Foreword, by Alexander Garvin

If you'd like the chance to receive a free copy of Ed Bacon, send an email to pressmkt at pobox dot upenn dot edu with your first name, last name, and your preferred email address by Friday, May 17  at noon Eastern Standard Time. One person will be selected at random to receive a hardcover or ebook copy.

Win a Free Copy of The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America

The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America, written by Drexel University historian Scott Gabriel Knowles, is out in paperback now.

Knowles tells the fascinating story of how various professionals--insurance inspectors, engineers, scientists, journalists, public officials, civil defense planners, and emergency managers--emerged as the authorities on risk and disaster and, in the process, shaped modern America.

The Disaster Experts looks at responses to early twentieth-century conflagrations, the threat of nuclear annihilation, civil unrest, the 9/11 attacks, and hurricanes like Katrina. These crises were especially life-threatening and deadly in densely populated communities.

As cities and towns across the country continue to cope with superstorms, shootings, rising ocean levels, and other dangers to life and property, The Disaster Experts remains a timely read for urban planners, historians, and safety-minded citizens.

If you'd like the chance to receive a free copy of The Disaster Experts, send an email to pressmkt at pobox dot upenn dot edu with your first name, last name, and your preferred email address by March 15 at noon Eastern Standard Time. One winner will be selected at random.

Hear Scott Knowles discuss moral hazard, federal funds, and Hurricane Sandy relief efforts on WHYY's Radio Times.

This Week's New Books: Homeless and International Bohemia

Homeless: Poverty and Place in Urban America Ella Howard 288 pages | 6 x 9 | 21 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4472-4 | $45.00 | £29.50 Ebook 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-0826-9 | $45.00 | £29.50 A volume in the Politics and Culture in Modern America series Homeless explores the efforts of private and public institutions to solve the problem of homelessness by tracing the rise and fall of skid rows in America through the lens of New York's Bowery. Crowded onto skid rows, the homeless lived apart from the middle classes, who saw them as an aberrant population. Read more . . .

International Bohemia: Scenes of Nineteenth-Century Life Daniel Cottom 384 pages | 6 x 9 | 17 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4488-5 | $59.95 | £39.00 EBook 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-0807-8 | $59.95 | £39.00 A volume in the Haney Foundation Series Daniel Cottom traces the vagabond word "bohemia" as it migrated across national borders over the course of the nineteenth century—from France to the United States, England, Italy, Spain, and Germany—and how it was transformed, contested, or rejected along the way. Read more . . .

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

This Week's New Books

Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the Transformation of American Politics Elizabeth Tandy Shermer 416 pages | 6 x 9 | 18 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4470-0 | $49.95 | £32.50 A volume in the Politics and Culture in Modern America series Historian Elizabeth Tandy Shermer examines how Barry Goldwater and elite Phoenix businessmen used policy and federal funds to fashion a postwar "business climate," setting off an interstate competition for investment that transformed American politics.

The Poetics of Piracy: Emulating Spain in English Literature Barbara Fuchs 200 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4475-5 | $45.00 | £29.50 A volume in the Haney Foundation Series Amid thorny issues of translation and appropriation, imperial rivalry, the rise of commercial authorship, and anxieties about authenticity, Barbara Fuchs traces how early modern English writers borrowed Spanish literary models, triumphantly reimagining the transnational appropriation as heroic looting.

True Relations: Reading, Literature, and Evidence in Seventeenth-Century England Frances E. Dolan 344 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4485-4 | $59.95 | £39.00 Examining seventeenth-century crises of evidence and genres of evidence on which both literary critics and historians now depend, True Relations explores the notion that we apprehend truth through other people's relations of it and that those relations, and our own relation to them, are a function of social relationships in conflict.

Paperclay: Art and Practice Rosette Gault 160 pages | 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 | 150 color illus. Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2241-8 | $28.95 | £19.00 A volume in the New Ceramics series Not for sale outside North America and the Philippines Paperclay is an extremely versatile material for the contemporary potter. Packed with new photographs and clear instructions, Rosette Gault's comprehensive guide is an essential introduction to the medium.

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

Win a Free Copy of Homeless: Poverty and Place in Urban America

Homeless: Poverty and Place in Urban America examines how generations of urban dwellers have dealt with the tensions between the rights of the homeless and those of other city residents. In this new urban studies book, historian Ella Howard traces the rise and fall of skid rows in America through the lens of New York's Bowery.

If you'd like the chance to receive a free copy of Homeless, send an email to pressmkt at pobox dot upenn dot edu with your first name, last name, and your preferred email address by February 8 at noon Eastern Standard Time. One person will be selected at random to receive a hardcover or ebook copy of Homeless.

This Week's New Books: Agriculture, Love, and Archaeology

Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and Policy Challenges Edited by Paul Dorosh and Shahidur Rashid 376 pages | 6 x 9 | 104 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4529-5 | $59.95 | £39.00 A volume in the International Food Policy Research Institute series In this volume, policy experts provide empirical evidence to shed light on the complexities of agricultural and food policy in today's Ethiopia, highlight major policies and interventions of the past decade, and provide insights into building resilience to natural disasters and food crises.

Empires of Love: Europe, Asia, and the Making of Early Modern Identity Carmen Nocentelli 272 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4483-0 | $55.00 | £36.00 Drawing on a wide range of Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish sources, Empires of Love shows how the encounter with Asia shaped the way early modern Europeans came to define their racial and sexual identities. al ventures have formed political associations to promote and defend their interests.

The Archaeology of Phrygian Gordion, Royal City of Midas: Gordion Special Studies 7 Edited by C. Brian Rose 360 pages | 8 1/2 x 11 | 13 color, 230 b/w illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-1-934536-48-3 | $79.95 | £52.00 A volume in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology series This volume covers all aspects of Gordion's Phrygian settlement topography from the arrival of the Phrygians in the tenth century B.C. through the arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., focusing on the site's changing topography and the consistently fluctuating interaction between the inhabitants and the landscape.

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

Paul's Pick: a Free Article from Humanity

Every month, Paul Chase in the Penn Press Journals department invites our blog readers to download a complimentary article from one of our many scholarly journals.

Paul's pick for November is "Some Rights Are More Equal than Others: The Third World and the Transformation of Economic and Social Rights"  by Roland Burke, author of Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights. The article appears in Winter 2012 issue of Humanity.

  Donofrio writes:

This essay will examine the impact of the Third World on the development and
subsequent reprioritization of economic and social rights. Between the 1940s and the late 1970s, these rights became an established feature of the international human rights order. While the Cold War division on human rights politics was often conceptualized as a struggle over the status of social rights in relation to traditional civil and political freedoms, there was significant support for economic and social rights from the Western democracies.

Click here to download this free article and learn more about Humanity, an international journal of human rights, humanitarianism, and development.

Check the Penn Press Log in February for Paul's next pick.

This Week's New Books: The Gardens of Suzhou and Making New York Dominican

The Gardens of Suzhou Ron Henderson 224 pages | 6 x 9 | 111 illus. Paper 2012 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2214-2 | $29.95 | £19.50 A volume in the Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture series ""Henderson, a talented landscape architect and designer himself, offers a helpful representation and unique tour of this collection of some of China's most famous gardens."--Laurie Olin, University of Pennsylvania Walk with landscape architect and scholar Ron Henderson through seventeen of Suzhou's classical Chinese garden masterpieces. This insightful guide is fully illustrated with newly drawn plans, maps, and original photographs.

Making New York Dominican: Small Business, Politics, and Everyday Life Christian Krohn-Hansen 336 pages | 6 x 9 | 2 illus. Cloth 2012 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4461-8 | $69.95 | £45.50 A volume in the City in the Twenty-First Century series This volume presents an ethnographic study of Dominicans in New York City through their participation in small businesses. Krohn-Hansen demonstrates how Dominican enterprises work, how people find economic openings, and how Dominicans who own small commercial ventures have formed political associations to promote and defend their interests.

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

Paul's Pick: a Free Article from Change Over Time

Every month, Paul Chase in the Penn Press Journals department invites our blog readers to download a complimentary article from one of our many scholarly journals.

Paul's pick for November is "Preservation by Adaption: Is it Sustainable?"  by Gregory Donofrio at the University of Minnesota. The article appears in the Fall 2012 issue of Change Over Time. Donofrio writes:

Preservation advocates have recently become fond of saying that ‘‘existing buildings
are the greenest ones of all,’’ an expression that begins to reveal the degree to which the natural environment has overshadowed other aspects of sustainability.

 

Click here to download this free article and learn more about Change Over Time, an international journal of conservation and the built environment.

Check the Penn Press Log in January for Paul's next pick.