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.
Automata, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Early Modern World
Recounts the histories of German clockwork automata, which were given as gifts and collected in the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Mughal Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Sculptural Encounter in the Age of Aesthetic Theory
Explores tensions in aesthetics and art theory between antique figural sculpture experienced in the round and its translation into two-dimensional representations. Examines the work and thought of Goethe, Winckelmann, Hegel, Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, and others.
First published in 1979, this volume offers students and teachers a unique view of American history prior to the Civil War. Distinguished historian David Brion Davis has chosen a diverse array of primary sources that show the actual concerns, hopes, fears, and understandings of ordinary antebellum Americans. He places these sources within a ......
Few terms have garnered more recent attention in the sciences, humanities, and public sphere than the Anthropocene, the proposed epoch in which a human signature appears in the lithostratigraphic record. Anthropocene Reading considers the implications of this concept for literary history and critical ......
Few terms have garnered more recent attention in the sciences, humanities, and public sphere than the Anthropocene, the proposed epoch in which a human “signature” appears in the lithostratigraphic record. Anthropocene Reading considers the implications of this concept for literary history and critical ......
The Visual Exegesis of Revelation in Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts
Studies the illustration of Revelation in manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Examines how twenty-five of the most important illustrated Apocalypses illustrate the biblical text and interpret it for diverse audiences.
Volume II: Excavations Outside the Medieval Town Walls
Reports findings from the 1996, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2013, and 2017 excavation seasons at the Apollonia-Arsuf archaeological site, located on a fossilized sandstone dune ridge on the Mediterranean coast of Israel.
Arguments from popular opinion have long been regarded with suspicion, and in most logic textbooks the ad populum argument is classified as a fallacy. Douglas Walton now asks whether this negative evaluation is always justified, particularly in a democratic system where decisions are based on majority opinion.
