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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First published in 1653, The Compleat Angler is one of the most influential environmental texts ever written. Addressing a politically and religiously polarized nation devastated by warfare, disease, ecological degradation, and climate change, Izaak Walton's famous fishing treatise stages a radical thought experiment: how might humanity's enhanced ......
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 ......
This book examines the active political life of Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza (1566–1614), a poet and mystic who renounced her noble birthright for an ascetic, spiritual life.
Forgery, Theft, and Sainthood in the Seventeenth Century
On the night of March 18, 1655, two Spanish friars broke into a church to steal the bones of the founder of their religious institution, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. This book investigates this little-known incident of relic theft and the lengthy legal case that followed, together with the larger questions that surround the remains of ......
Bernardino Ochino was one of the most celebrated Italian Catholic preachers of the sixteenth century-until the Roman Inquisition forced him into exile. But rather than silencing him, displacement granted Ochino an unprecedented platform: unimpeded access to the printing press and the ability to spread his ideas across Europe. In this ......
This book examines the active political life of Luisa Carvajal y Mendoza (1566–1614), a poet and mystic who renounced her noble birthright for an ascetic, spiritual life.
While critiquing existing approaches to the Pentateuch’s composition is valuable, this volume emphasizes formulating positive proposals grounded in verifiable data and logical argumentation.
This volume reports the results of the Tel Aviv University and the College de France's excavations at Kiriath-jearim. The site, located on a strategic peak west of Jerusalem, is of crucial importance for the study of the archaeology and history of Iron Age Israel and Judah, and later, of Hellenistic and Roman Judea. Specific attention is given to ......