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.

This Week's New Books: Ellis Island Nation, Human Rights and the Negotiation of American Power, Dreams, Dreamers, and Visions, How Rivalries End, and More

Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century Robert L. Fleegler 280 pages | 6 x 9 | 5 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4509-7 | $49.95 | £32.50 A volume in the Haney Foundation Series Examining the shift between American immigrant policy between 1924 and 1964, Ellis Island Nation traces the emergence of "contributionism," the belief that the newcomers from eastern and southern Europe contributed important cultural and economic benefits to American society. Read more . . .

Human Rights and the Negotiation of American Power Glenn Mitoma 240 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4506-6 | $55.00 | £36.00 A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series Through careful archival research, Glenn Mitoma reveals how the U.S. government, key civil society groups, Cold War politics, and specific individuals led to America's emergence in the twentieth century as an ambivalent yet central player in establishing an international rights ethic. Read more . . .

Dreams, Dreamers, and Visions: The Early Modern Atlantic World Edited by Ann Marie Plane and Leslie Tuttle. Foreword by Anthony F. C. Wallace 336 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4504-2 | $65.00 | £42.50 In this volume, scholars from three continents trace the role of dreams in the cultural transitions of the early modern Atlantic world, illustrating how both indigenous and European methods of understanding dream phenomena became central to contests over religious and political power. Read more . . .

How Rivalries End Karen Rasler, William R. Thompson, and Sumit Ganguly 272 pages | 6 x 9 | 4 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4498-4 | $69.95 | £45.50 Examining political hot spots stretching from Egypt and Israel to North and South Korea, How Rivalries End builds an original theory from patterns in successful conflict resolutions and reveals the key factors in reducing tensions and building long-term peace between adversaries. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback "The Farce of the Fart" and Other Ribaldries: Twelve Medieval French Plays in Modern English Edited and translated by Jody Enders 496 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4323-9 | $49.95 | £32.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2251-7 | $29.95 | £19.50 A volume in the Middle Ages Series Theater historian Jody Enders brings a dozen of the funniest French farces to contemporary English speaking audiences for the first time. This performance-friendly collection includes background information about the plays for medievalists, theater practitioners, and classic comedy lovers alike. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies William C. Kashatus 392 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 30 illus. Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2245-6 | $24.95 | £16.50 Almost A Dynasty details the rise and fall of the World Champion 1980 Phillies. Based on personal interviews, newspaper accounts, and the keen insight of a veteran baseball writer, the book convincingly explains how a losing team was finally able to win its first world championship. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback 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 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2267-8 | $26.50 | £17.50 A volume in the American Governance: Politics, Policy, and Public Law series In Civil Rights Advocacy on Behalf of the Poor, Catherine M. Paden examines five civil rights organizations and explores why they chose to represent the poor—specifically, low-income African Americans—during six legislative periods considering welfare reform. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback First Lady of Letters: Judith Sargent Murray and the Struggle for Female Independence Sheila L. Skemp 512 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 10 illus. Cloth 2009 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4140-2 | $42.50 | £28.00 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2248-7 | $27.50 | £18.00 A volume in the Early American Studies series Thanks to the recent discovery of Judith Sargent Murray's papers—including some 2,500 personal letters—Sheila L. Skemp has documented the compelling story of a talented and most unusual eighteenth-century woman. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback Citizenship, Borders, and Human Needs Edited by Rogers M. Smith 504 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4283-6 | $65.00 | £42.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2269-2 | $34.95 | £23.00 A volume in the Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism series Edited and with an introduction by political scientist Rogers M. Smith, Citizenship, Borders, and Human Needs brings together essays by an international array of leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines to explore the economic, cultural, political, and normative aspects of comparative immigration policies. 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: Takedown and Looting and Rape in Wartime, Plus Paperbacks in Human Rights, Early American Studies, Urban Studies, and Religious Studies

Takedown: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda Philip Mudd 224 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth Apr 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4496-0 | $28.95 | £19.00 Former CIA Deputy Director of Counterterrorism and FBI Senior Intelligence Adviser Philip Mudd recounts his involvement in the fight against Al Qaeda, revealing how intelligence analysts understand and evaluate potential terror threats and communicate with political leaders. Read more . . .

Looting and Rape in Wartime: Law and Change in International Relations Tuba Inal 296 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4476-2 | $75.00 | £49.00 A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series Looting and Rape in Wartime examines the causes of the hundred-year gap between the prohibition against wartime looting and that against rape, theorizing the conditions necessary for the emergence of a global prohibition regime in which a particular practice is not tolerated. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback Forgotten Genocides: Oblivion, Denial, and Memory Edited by René Lemarchand 200 pages | 6 x 9 | 4 illus. Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4335-2 | $49.95 | £32.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2263-0 | $24.95 | £16.50 A volume in the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights series In eight case studies written by recognized experts this book offers a major contribution to the comparative analysis of genocidal phenomena. Besides tapping a rich vein of empirical data, this collective effort breaks new ground in analyzing how denial, oblivion, or manipulated memory tends to mask the hideous realities of mass killing. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland Donna Merwick 344 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 20 illus. Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2272-2 | $26.50 | £17.50 A volume in the Early American Studies series During the forty years of the Dutch presence in colonial America, their intrusion led to the betrayal of their own values and the betrayal of the indigenous peoples. They reaped the shame of reproaching themselves for unjust wars and faced a native insurgency that they could neither negotiate nor satisfactorily quell. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages Stephen A. Mitchell 384 pages | 6 x 9 | 12 illus Cloth 2010 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4290-4 | $49.95 | £32.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2255-5 | $24.95 | £16.50 A volume in the Middle Ages Series Stephen A. Mitchell offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia, drawing on extensive sources ranging from the Icelandic sagas to those much less familiar to the nonspecialist: legal cases, church frescoes, law codes, ecclesiastical records, and surviving runic spells. Read more . . .

Now in Paperback Neighborhood and Life Chances: How Place Matters in Modern America Edited by Harriet B. Newburger, Eugenie L. Birch, and Susan M. Wachter 392 pages | 6 x 9 | 34 illus. Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4258-4 | $59.95 | £39.00 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2265-4 | $28.95 | £19.00 A volume in the City in the Twenty-First Century series Neighborhood and Life Chances brings together researchers from a range of disciplines to demonstrate that place matters in education, physical health, crime, violence, housing, family income, mental health, and discrimination—issues that determine the quality of life among low-income residents of urban areas. 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: The Jet Sex, Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture, Stuyvesant Bound, and Owning William Shakespeare

Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture Edited by Gary Hatfield and Holly Pittman 496 pages | 6 x 9 | 27 illus. Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-1-934536-49-0 | $69.95 | £45.50 A volume in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology series Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture draws together studies in archaeology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, genetics, neuroscience, and environmental science to investigate the evolution of the human mind, the brain, and the human capacity for culture. Read more...

Stuyvesant Bound: An Essay on Loss Across Time Donna Merwick 232 pages | 6 x 9 | 5 illus. Cloth Apr 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4503-5 | $59.95 | £39.00 A volume in the Early American Studies series Stuyvesant Bound is an innovative, compelling reassessment of the last Director-General of New Netherland. Donna Merwick employs a multidisciplinary approach to examine the layers of culture within which Peter Stuyvesant forged his career and performed his identity. Read more...

The Jet Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon Victoria Vantoch 304 pages | 6 x 9 | 30 illus. Cloth Apr 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4481-6 | $34.95 | £23.00 Victoria Vantoch takes us on a fascinating journey into the golden era of air travel. The Jet Sex explores the much-mythologized stewardess within the context of the Cold War, globalization, and the emerging culture of glamour to reveal how beauty and sexuality were critical to national identity and international politics. Read more...

Now in Paperback Owning William Shakespeare: The King's Men and Their Intellectual Property James J. Marino 216 pages | 6 x 9 | 10 illus. Cloth 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4296-6 | $49.95 | £32.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2254-8 | $22.50 | £15.00 A volume in the Material Texts series This book explores actors' systems of intellectual property in early modern England. Focusing on Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and other plays, James Marino demonstrates how Shakespeare's company asserted ownership of its plays through intense ongoing revision and through insistent attribution to Shakespeare. 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

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...

This Week's New Book: Lost Letters of Medieval Life English Society, 1200-1250

Lost Letters of Medieval Life English Society, 1200-1250 Edited by Martha Carlin and David Crouch 432 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 19 illus. Cloth Mar 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4459-5 | $79.95 | £52.00 A volume in the Middle Ages Series Drawn from two medieval collections of form letters for all manner of business and personal affairs, Lost Letters of Medieval Life depicts early thirteenth-century England through the everyday correspondence of people of all classes, from peasants and shopkeepers to bishops and earls. 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: 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.

This Week's New Books: The Roman Inquisition, Freud on Madison Avenue, and Ceramics in Print

The Roman Inquisition: A Papal Bureaucracy and Its Laws in the Age of Galileo Thomas F. Mayer 392 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4473-1 | $79.95 | £52.00 A volume in the Haney Foundation Series As Thomas F. Mayer demonstrates in this first study of the Roman Inquisition as an institution, the Inquisition underwent constant modification as it expanded. Originally aimed to eradicate Protestant heresy, it went beyond medieval antecedents by becoming a highly articulated centralized organ directly dependent on the pope.

Now in Paperback Freud on Madison Avenue: Motivation Research and Subliminal Advertising in America Lawrence R. Samuel 232 pages | 6 x 9 Cloth 2010 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4251-5 | $29.95 | £19.50 Paper 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2226-5 | $22.50 | £15.00 Freud on Madison Avenue tells the story of how and why mid-twentieth-century advertisers adopted Freudian psychology to sell products. This study follows the careers of Paul Lazarsfeld, Herta Herzog, James Vicary, Alfred Politz, Pierre Martineau, Edward Bernays, and the father of motivational research, Ernest Dichter.

Ceramics and Print Paul Scott Third Edition 144 pages | 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 | 110 color illus. Paper | ISBN 978-0-8122-2242-5 | $29.95 | £19.50 A volume in the New Ceramics series Not for sale outside North America and the Philippines Ceramics and Print presents the latest developments in printing on clay and vitreous surfaces. Illustrated with new images of beautiful works by leading artists working in printed ceramics, this updated book is a must-read guide for artists and makers interested in this increasingly popular field.

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 Book: Poetics of the Incarnation

Poetics of the Incarnation: Middle English Writing and the Leap of Love Cristina Maria Cervone 376 pages | 6 x 9 | 11 illus Cloth 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4451-9 | $69.95 | £45.50 Ebook 2013 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4451-9 | $69.95 | £45.50 A volume in the Middle Ages Series "This is a virtuoso study, a substantial, unusual, often brilliant contribution to Middle English stylistics and poetics."--Nicholas Watson, Harvard University Poetics of the Incarnation examines fourteenth-century writers whose poetry and narrative explore the intellectual implications of the hypostatic union. The Incarnation inspired a working-through of the philosophical and theological implications of language while Middle English was emerging as a legitimate medium for theological expression.

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