Penn Press Log

This Week's New Books

Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291 Edited by Jessalynn Bird, Edward Peters, and James M. Powell 568 pages | 6 x 9 | 5 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4478-6 | $75.00 | £49.00 A volume in the Middle Ages Series Intended for the undergraduate yet also invaluable for teachers and scholars, this book illustrates how the crusade became crucial for defining and promoting the very concept and boundaries of Latin Christendom. It provides translations of and commentaries on key original sources and an up-to-date bibliography. Read more...

Tropical Whites: The Rise of the Tourist South in the Americas Catherine Cocks 284 pages | 6 x 9 | 9 color, 12 b/w illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4499-1 | $59.95 | £39.00 A volume in the Nature and Culture in America series Tropical Whites explains how the tropical beach resort came to symbolize the iconic vacation landscape. Catherine Cocks argues that the tourism industry romanticized and commodified tropical nature in the global South, ultimately legitimizing cultural pluralism and concepts of modern identity. Read more...

Inventing the Egghead: The Battle over Brainpower in American Culture Aaron Lecklider 296 pages | 6 x 9 | 21 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4486-1 | $45.00 | £29.50 Throughout the twentieth century, popular songs, magazine articles, plays, posters, and novels alternated between representing intelligence as empowering and as threatening. In Inventing the Egghead, Aaron Lecklider cracks open this paradox by examining representations of intelligence to reveal brainpower's stalwart appeal and influence. Read more...

An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States Eric R. Schlereth 312 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4493-9 | $55.00 | £36.00 A volume in the Early American Studies series Eric R. Schlereth places religious conflicts between deists and their opponents at the center of early American public life. This history recasts the origins of cultural politics in the United States by exploring how everyday Americans navigated questions of religious truth and difference in an age of emerging religious liberty. Read more...

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.

Paul's Pick: a Free Article from Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft

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 September is "Current Trends in the Application of Cognitive Science to Magic" by Edward Bever at SUNY College of Old Westbury.

Bever writes that "evolutionary psychologists have developed increasingly sophisticated, although still controversial,theories explaining in terms of natural selection the reasons that specific cognitive capabilities became hard-wired into our brains." Yet, he observes "Historians of magic have paid relatively little attention to this fundamental change in our understanding of how the mind works."

Bever's article will appear in the Summer issue of the Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft.

Click here to download this free article and learn more about the interdisc.

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

Natural Light on Natural History: Rosamond Purcell's Notes on Photographing Artifacts for A Glorious Enterprise

A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, by Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud, features original photographs by Rosamond Purcell. Purcell found an unconventional studio space for her work, the Academy's rooftop. In this blog post, she shares some of her observations on natural history and natural light photography.

It was overcast and dark in the back rooms on the first day when we embarked on this exhilarating project at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The first specimens we contemplated seemed drab, their charms unforthcoming. Bob Peck knew that I preferred to photograph using natural light, so we spent the morning hunting for optimistic window sills and faint glimmers. I searched through stiff-drawered cabinets of ancient chalk nodules, looking for beauties and leaving paper scraps in my wake. At about 2:00 p.m. we went outside, taking along several fossil ammonites and a few of the chalks found by the eighteenth century paleontologist, Etheldred Benett. Collections manager Ned Gilmore carried the specimens and kept us company, and, as a cheerful team, we explored the best open-air studio that this--or any other--institution had to offer.

Astounding Wonder--Now Available

Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America
John Cheng
384 pages | 6 x 9 | 20 Illus.
Cloth 2012 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4383-3 | $45.00 | £29.50

"John Cheng's highly readable book imaginatively shows the science fiction community's role in, and ways of, perceiving science. Cheng displays the ways in which readers incorporated science fiction into their lives, how this led them to think about science, and further still how some of them imagined aspects of that science into being. Displaying sure-handed use of challenging sources as well as deep knowledge of scientific as well as social theory, Astounding Wonder is cultural history at its best, and so much more."--Ian Gordon, author of Comic Strips and Consumer 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.

A Glorious Enterprise--Now Available

A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science
Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud. Photographs by Rosamond Purcell
464 pages | 9 1/2 x 12 | 269 color illus.
Cloth 2012 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4380-2 | $75.00 | £49.00

"A book to remember. . . . To wander through A Glorious Enterprise is to absorb the 19th century's passion for botany and zoology; the 20th century's mania for exploration of distant, difficult or desolate places; and present-day preoccupations. . . . All of these tales are fascinating, but the book's true fascination comes in its color photographs and illustrations, scores of them."
—Cornelia Dean, New York Times

This first complete history of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia narrates signal moments, achievements, and the colorful characters associated with an institution that shaped the study of natural history in America. Stunning original photographs by Rosamond Purcell cast extraordinary specimens from Academy collections in a new light.

Watch Peck and Stroud discuss A Glorious Enterprise behind the scences at the Academy.

Read more . . .

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

Eugenic Design author Christina Cogdell Talks about the History of Sterilization on CNN

A new CNN report on California's history of forced sterilizations includes an interview with Christina Cogdell, author of Eugenic Design: Streamlining America in the 1930s.

According to the report, in the 1930s, members of the Nazi party asked California eugenicists for advice on how to run their own sterilization program. "Germany used California's program as its chief example that this was a working, successful policy," Cogdell told CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen. "They modeled their law on California's law."

Watch this two-part story on sterilization victims and their fight for compensation on the Anderson Cooper 360 web site.

This Month's Podcast: Astounding Wonder author John Cheng on Readers, Race, and Rocket Science

In the March Penn Press podcast, historian and patent-holder John Cheng discusses the early culture of popular science fiction. Cheng's new book, Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America, examines the origins of the genre and its community of fans. Cheng shows how pulp science fiction magazines of the 1920s and 30s reflected mainstream views of race and gender while inspiring both professional scientists and amateurs to pursue research.

Cheng talks about science fiction publishing pioneer Hugo Gernsback, Ming the Merciless, and a group of science fiction fans and rocket enthusiasts first known as the American Interplanetary Society. AIS spawned Reaction Motors, makers of the rocket engine that powered the Bell X-1.

Visit the Penn Press podcast page to listen.

Two New Exhibits, Two New Books

This weekend, two new exhibits feature artwork connected to new and forthcoming Penn Press books.

A Singular View—The Art and Words of John Paton Davies, Jr. opens Saturday, March 3 at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD. Davies, author of China Hand: An Autobiography, was a designer as well as a diplomat. This exhibit of his art coincides with the posthumous release of his book. The exhibit runs though April 14, 2012. Visit www.strathmore.org for details.

The Everything Under the Sun: New Photographs of Academy Specimens by Rosamond Purcell exhibit opens on Saturday, March 3 at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University here in Philadelphia, PA. Purcell's photographs are featured in A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, written by Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud. The exhibit runs through May 20, 2012. Call 215-299-1000 or visit www.ansp.org for more information.

For a sample of Purcell's original photographs and other illustrations selected from the ANSP archives, check out the image gallery for A Glorious Enterprise.

The Research Triangle Author William M. Rohe on the Air with North Carolina's D. G. Martin

At first glance, William M. Rohe, bone fide professor and author of The Research Triangle: From Tobacco Road to Global Prominence, doesn' t seem to have much in common with the ersatz Professor Harold Hill of "The Music Man" fame. But both professors have a talent for drumming up interest in civic issues.

Rohe's work is getting a lot of attention in North Carolina, especially from media personality D. G. Martin. Martin  interviewed Rohe for the 1360 WCHL radio program Who's Talking? With D.G. Martin. The interview will air today at 6:15 p.m. Martin also praised The Research Triangle in his column which appeared in North Carolina newspapers such as the Herald-Sun.

"North Carolinians outside the Research Triangle region envy its economic success and cultural assets. But don’t get too jealous," wrote Martin in his article We got trouble right here in River City. "The very success of the Triangle brings challenges that, if unmet, will topple the Triangle’s place as North Carolina’s capstone example of successful economic development. The Triangle’s dilemmas are the focus of The Research Triangle: From Tobacco Road to Global Prominence, a new book by William Rohe, director of the Center for Urban & Regional Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. . . . Rohe enthusiastically catalogues the benefits the Park brought to the region, including the high-value businesses, the high-paying jobs, and the leveraged economic activity that results from them. However, Rohe’s most important message to North Carolinians is like that of Professor Hill in 'The Music Man,' who asserted to complacent townspeople, 'We got trouble right here in River City.' Much of the trouble in the Triangle is a result of the region’s success. The low-density, sprawling housing patterns and crowded traffic routes cannot sustain the projected population growth of the region."

D. G. Martin's column is available at the Herald-Sun website.

 

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