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.
Scholarly publishing has faced monumental challenges over the past few decades. The Press takes its place among those institutions moving the enterprise forward. Its innovative projects continue to identify and embrace the technological advances and business models that ensure scholarly publishing will remain feasible, and widely accessible, well into the future.
Popular Memory in the Rise of the Ethnonationalist State
By the 1970s, World War II had all but disappeared from US popular culture, but in the mid-eighties it returned with a vengeance. Today, remembrance of World War II is ubiquitous across US media and politics, demonstrating its centrality to American collective identity. In this book, Barbara Biesecker explores this shift, revealing how "the Good ......
The Origin, Development, and Enduring Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath
This book begins by exploring the mysterious origins of an institution so familiar that most of us never wonder where it came from-the seven-day week. Jon D. Levenson then focuses on the historical development of the Jewish Sabbath and the rich range of theological and ethical meanings it has acquired over the centuries. Levenson evaluates the ......
"More popular than Jesus." Despite the uproar it caused in America in 1966, John Lennon's famous assessment of the Beatles vis-a-vis religion was not far off. The Beatles did mean more to kids than the religions in which they were raised, not only in America but everywhere in the world. By all accounts, the Beatles were the most significant ......
A wealthy textile titan from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Frank Masland Jr. was an ardent political conservative and an equally fervent conservationist who was well known and highly respected among the mid-twentieth-century environmental preservation community. This eye-opening biography charts Masland's life work, telling the story of how he and ......
African American Writings About the City of Brotherly Love
The relationship between the City of Brotherly Love and its Black residents has been complicated from the city's founding through the present day. A Black Philadelphia Reader traces this complex history in the words of Black writers who were native to, lived in, or had significant connections to the city. Featuring the works of famous ......
Do shifts in material culture instigate administrative change, or is it the shifting political winds that affect material culture? This is the central question that Shlomit Bechar addresses in this book, taking the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (seventeenth-fourteenth centuries BCE) in northern Canaan as a test case. Combining ......
This volume traces the history of Oneness Pentecostalism in North America. It maps the major ideas, arguments, periodization, and historical figures; corrects long-standing misinterpretations; and draws attention to how race and gender impacted the growth and trajectories of this movement. Oneness Pentecostalism emerged in the aftermath of the ......
While many recognize William Penn as the founder of Pennsylvania and a defender of religious liberty, much less is known about Penn as a man of faith. This wide-ranging history examines Penn as a deeply religious man who experienced personal triumph and success as well as tragedy and failure. After an introduction to Penn and his times, J. ......
This book introduces the evocative but largely unknown tradition of Samaritan religious poetry from late antiquity to a new audience. These verses provide a unique window into the Samaritan religious world during a formative period. Prepared by Laura Suzanne Lieber, this anthology presents annotated English translations of fifty-five Classical ......
