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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As more and more species fall under the threat of extinction, humans are not only taking action to protect critical habitats but are also engaging more directly with species to help mitigate their decline. Through innovative infrastructure design and by changing how we live, humans are becoming more attuned to nonhuman animals and are making ......
Long dependent on the Asian spice trade, Portugal suffered serious setbacks during the period of political union with Spain (1580-1640), as the Dutch and others seized key regions and destroyed commercial monopolies. By 1668, the greatest hope for a renewed Portuguese empire lay to the west. This book examines the "Atlanticization" of Lisbon ......
In 1965, striking farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley sparked the beginning of the Chican@ movement. As the movement quickly gained traction across the southwestern United States, public frictions emerged and splits among activists over strategic political decisions. Jose G. Izaguirre III explores how these disagreements often hinged on the ......
A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer's Religion Explained
These are some of the most fundamental and enduring questions we have about the mysteries of religion, and they may well hold the key to humankinds future on this earth.
The Life, Work, and Letters of a Jewish Scholar in Nazi Germany
Julius Wellhausen was a monumental figure in the field of Biblical Studies whose work has been denounced as antisemitic in recent years. This book offers a more nuanced view of Wellhausen's scholarship through a critical edition and translation of one of the last doctoral dissertations by a Jew in Nazi Germany: Friedemann Philipp Boschwitz's ......
Between 2016 and 2022, a team from the British Museum conducted excavations in the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, the sacred center of the state of Lagash. On an archaeological mound referred to as the Mound of the Palace, or Tell A, they discovered the ground plan of the fabulous Temple of Ningirsu, built by the ruler Gudea circa 2125 BCE. Deep ......
The period from 1830 to 1937 was transformative for modern Quakerism. Practitioners made significant contributions to world culture, from their heavy involvement in the abolitionist and women's rights movements and creation of thriving communities of Friends in the Global South to the large-scale post-World War I humanitarian relief efforts of the ......
Since the mid-nineteenth century, there has been a notable acceleration in the development of the techniques used to confirm identity. From fingerprints to photographs to DNA, we have been rapidly amassing novel means of identification, even as personal, individual identity remains a complex chimera. The Art of Identification examines how such ......
Thomas Bradbury Chandler and the Loyalist Mind in a Democratic Age
In this penetrating biography of Thomas Bradbury Chandler, S. Scott Rohrer takes readers deep into the intellectual world of a leading loyalist who defended monarchy, rejected rebellion and democracy, and opposed the American Revolution. Talented, hardworking, and erudite, this Anglican minister from New Jersey possessed one of the Church of ......
