Founded in 1956, Penn State University Press publishes rigorously reviewed, high-quality works of scholarship and books of regional and contemporary interest, with a focus on the humanities and social sciences. The publishing arm of the Pennsylvania State University and a division of the Penn State University Libraries, the Press promotes the advance of scholarship by disseminating knowledge—new information, interpretations, methods of analysis—widely in books, journals, and digital publications.
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In The Dark Side of Genius, Laurinda Dixon examines melancholia as a philosophical, medical, and social phenomenon in early modern art. Once considered to have a physical and psychic disorder, the melancholic combined positive aspects of genius and breeding with the negative qualities of depression and obsession. By focusing on four ......
The ancient Near Eastern mode of thought is not at all intuitive to us moderns, but our understanding of ancient perspectives can only approach accuracy when we begin to penetrate ancient texts on their own terms rather than imposing our own world view. In this task, we are aided by the ever-growing corpus of literature that is being ......
Manuscripts of Learned Magic in the Medieval Libraries of Central Europe
Presents and analyzes texts of learned magic written in medieval Central Europe (Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary), and attempts to identify their authors, readers, and collectors.
First published by the Warburg Institute in 1958, this book is considered a landmark in Renaissance studies. Whereas most scholars had tended to view magic as a marginal subject, Walker showed that magic was one of the most typical creations of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
During the past century, literary education, often divorced from rhetoric, has grown increasingly distant from the practice of language in statecraft, law, religion, and ethics. Yet literature and rhetoric retain open, independent powers to enhance what Emerson calls "the conduct of life." In these provocative essays, James Engell ......
Mizrahi-Arab-Ashkenazi Relations Since the Dawn of Zionism
Originally published in Hebrew in 2021, Hillel Cohen's Enemies, A Love Story argues that to understand the ongoing conflict in Palestine/Israel we need to examine the interactions among three identity groups: Mizrahim, Ashkenazim, and Arabs. Refusing to treat Jewish society as a monolith, Cohen shows how the ethnic divide between Ashkenazim (Jews ......
While critiquing existing approaches to the Pentateuch’s composition is valuable, this volume emphasizes formulating positive proposals grounded in verifiable data and logical argumentation.
How Nazi Persecution Shaped the Struggle for LGBTQ+ Rights
The Third Reich subjected some 100,000 individuals to a pernicious anti-homosexual campaign that included censorship, surveillance, medical experimentation, and death. Credible scholarship suggests that as many as 15,000 were interned in concentration camps, though the actual names and numbers of all those who suffered and died will never be ......
Mr. Ito's children act as his informal translators, but his doctor isn't sure their translations are accurate or complete. Is Mr. Ito getting the medical information he needs? Ten-year-old Hannah arrives for her checkup with a bruised nose and an irritable father. Med student Melanie is concerned for Hannah's safety but wary of making ......
