Hot Off Penn Press: January’s New Books

While the groundhog may have seen its shadow, forecasting six more weeks of winter, we can keep our minds off the weather with the most recent books from Penn Press!

Jump to: General Interest | American History | Art | Literature | Medieval and Early Modern Studies | Politics and Human Rights


GENERAL INTEREST


The Sabermetric RevolutionNOW IN PAPERBACK
The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball

Benjamin Baumer and Andrew Zimbalist

"Andrew Zimbalist and Benjamin Baumer do the best job yet of evaluating the benefits and the myths of the ever-growing world of baseball analytics. This is a must-read for anyone interested in where sports metrics have been as well as where they're going."—Stan Kasten, CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers

The Sabermetric Revolution examines the increasingly widespread use of sabermetrics to evaluate baseball player performance. Along the way, the book corrects common misconceptions about "moneyball" and evaluates the success of analytics in baseball front offices.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

208 pages | 6 x 9 | 14 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4572-1 | $26.50t | £17.50
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2339-2 | $19.95t | £13.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0912-9 | $19.95t | £13.00

 

Ellis Island NationNOW IN PAPERBACK
Ellis Island Nation: Immigration Policy and American Identity in the Twentieth Century

Robert L. Fleegler

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2014

Examining the shift between American immigrant policy between 1924 and 1964, Ellis Island Nation traces the emergence of "contributionism," the belief that the newcomers from eastern and southern Europe contributed important cultural and economic benefits to American society.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

280 pages | 6 x 9 | 5 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4509-7 | $49.95s | £32.50
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2338-5 | $24.95t | £16.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0809-2 | $24.95t | £16.50
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series

 


AMERICAN HISTORY


Professional IndianProfessional Indian: The American Odyssey of Eleazer Williams
Michael Leroy Oberg

"The story of a fascinating, enigmatic character who inhabited the cultural borderlands between the Iroquois confederacy and the early American republic in an era of dramatic change. Well written and compulsively readable, Professional Indian helps us see the insoluble dilemmas facing Native American communities in this period."—Eric Hinderaker, University of Utah

Professional Indian tells the story of Eleazer Williams: missionary to the Mohawks, Indian confidence man, and icon of an era of dispossession and change that compelled many native peoples to refashion their identities in the wake of Anglo-American expansion.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

280 pages | 6 x 9 | 6 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4676-6 | $39.95s | £26.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9214-5 | $39.95s | £26.00
A volume in the Early American Studies series

 

The Port Huron StatementThe Port Huron Statement: Sources and Legacies of the New Left's Founding Manifesto
Richard Flacks and Nelson Lichtenstein, Editors

"A wonderful volume—thoughtful, provocative, and entertaining. The all-star cast of contributors is truly impressive, filled with thoughtful activists and activist scholars."—David S. Meyer, University of California, Irvine

"This very fine collection on the Port Huron Statement and its key concept of 'participatory democracy' reminds us of how radicals and liberals might have walked together toward a boldly reshaped America. The volume is seasoned and insightful, yielding sterling original contributions that celebrate the Port Huron Statement while providing critical perspective informed by an acute sense that the program was not immediately realized."—Christopher Phelps, University of Nottingham

The Port Huron Statement was the most important manifesto of the New Left student movement of the 1960s. The essays in this volume—including some from original Port Huron contributors—probe the origins, content, and contemporary influence of the document that heralded the emergence of a vibrant New Left in American culture and politics.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

352 pages | 6 x 9
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4692-6 | $49.95s | £32.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9099-8 | $49.95s | £32.50
A volume in the Politics and Culture in Modern America series

 


ART


Peter BlumePeter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis
Robert Cozzolino, Editor

Showcasing over a hundred paintings and drawings as well as sketches, sculpture, and ephemera from all periods of his six-decade career, Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis provides unprecedented insight into the artist's process, his relationship to Surrealism, and his profound visions of twentieth-century social and spiritual upheaval.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

352 pages | 9 x 11 | 150 color illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-943836-42-3 | $59.95s | £39.00

 


LITERATURE


Early African American Print CultureNOW IN PAPERBACK
Early African American Print Culture

Lara Langer Cohen and Jordan Alexander Stein, Editors

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013

Early African American Print Culture presents seventeen original essays that demonstrate how the study of African American print culture might enrich the study of print culture, while at the same time expanding the terrain of African American literature beyond authorship to editing, illustration, printing, circulation, and reading.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

432 pages | 6 x 9 | 43 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4425-0 | $55.00s | £36.00
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2334-7 | $24.95t | £16.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0629-6 | $24.95s | £16.50
A volume in the Material Texts series

 

Shakespeare's ShrineNOW IN PAPERBACK
Shakespeare's Shrine: The Bard's Birthplace and the Invention of Stratford-upon-Avon

Julia Thomas

"This book is not only a delight to read, owing to the affectionate irony that tinges its prose, but also deeply instructive. Without renouncing the pleasure of storytelling, Thomas is always alert to implications and ready to increase our consciousness of cultural phenomena. She simultaneously constructs and deconstructs the fascination of the Birthplace, luring us into sharing the believers' gaze only to show how this aura of mysticism was created."—Journal of British Studies

As the first major study of Shakespeare's Birthplace during the nineteenth century, Shakespeare's Shrine draws on extensive archival research to describe the invention of the Birthplace in the Victorian period, when the site was purchased for the nation, extensively restored, and transformed into a major tourist attraction.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

232 pages | 6 x 9 | 22 illus.
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2337-8 | $19.95t | £13.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0662-3 | $19.95t | £13.00
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series

 


MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN STUDIES


Conquerors, Brides, and ConcubinesConquerors, Brides, and Concubines: Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia
Simon Barton

"A carefully researched and utterly fascinating work of scholarship that significantly furthers our understanding of the sexual politics of medieval Iberia."—D. Fairchild Ruggles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines investigates the political and cultural significance of marriages and other sexual encounters between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula from the Islamic conquest in the early eighth century to the end of Muslim rule in 1492.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

280 pages | 6 x 9 | 5 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4675-9 | $59.95s | £39.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9211-4 | $59.95s | £39.00
A volume in the Middle Ages Series

 

On the Importance of Being an Individual in Renaissance ItalyOn the Importance of Being an Individual in Renaissance Italy: Men, Their Professions, and Their Beards
Douglas Biow

"An elegant, erudite, and polemical book that most assuredly makes an important contribution to the literature on Renaissance individuality and male identity."—James R. Farr, Purdue University

"Douglas Biow offers a spirited and refreshing account of the ways Renaissance men carved out space for individuality over against the norms of their professions and communities."—John Jeffries Martin, Duke University

Arguing that the notion of individuality is central to understanding Renaissance Italy, Douglas Biow examines the ways that men of the period asserted their individuated selves, such as becoming masters of an art, creating a signature professional style or voice, or asserting themselves through a distinctive, fashionable look.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

328 pages | 7 x 10 | 56 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4671-1 | $55.00s | £36.00
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9050-9 | $55.00s | £36.00
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series

 

Lost Letters of Medieval LifeNOW IN PAPERBACK
Lost Letters of Medieval Life: English Society, 1200-1250

Martha Carlin and David Crouch, Editors

"A fascinating and important collection. It will add significant new source material to the known corpus of surviving thirteenth-century letters and will shed light on a host of central issues in the history of thirteenth-century England."—Robert Stacey, University of Washington

Drawn from two medieval collections of form letters for all manner of business and personal affairs, Lost Letters of Medieval Life depicts early thirteenth-century England through the everyday correspondence of people of all classes, from peasants and shopkeepers to bishops and earls.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

360 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 19 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4459-5 | $79.95s | £52.00
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2336-1 | $29.95t | £19.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0756-9 | $29.95s | £19.50
A volume in the Middle Ages Series

 

EnchantmentNOW IN PAPERBACK
Enchantment: On Charisma and the Sublime in the Arts of the West

C. Stephen Jaeger

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013

This book examines charisma as the force in art, literature, and film that engages the reader's or viewer's consciousness and inspires admiration and imitation. Thirteen chapters analyze the workings of charisma and its effects, ranging from Homer to Woody Allen.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

440 pages | 6 x 9 | 52 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4329-1 | $69.95s | £45.50
Paperback | ISBN 978-0-8122-2335-4 | $29.95t | £19.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-0652-4 | $29.95s | £19.50
A volume in the Haney Foundation Series

 

Inventing ExoticismInventing Exoticism: Geography, Globalism, and Europe's Early Modern World
Benjamin Schmidt

"Benjamin Schmidt has written a remarkable and remarkably innovative account of a remarkable phenomenon. Inventing Exoticism is a very substantial contribution to the study of the cultural history of early modern perceptions of the non-European world, to the history of the book, and to the history of the economics and the sociology of the flow of information. It shows for the first time just how instrumental the concern with the exotic was in the creation of the modern image of Europe and of Europe's place in an increasingly global world."—Anthony Pagden, University of California, Los Angeles

Lavishly illustrated and impressively interdisciplinary, Inventing Exoticism narrates a vital chapter in the history of European exoticism and Europe's perception of its place in the world. It traces the production and consumption of early modern exotic imagery to elucidate processes of cultural mediation in an earlier age of empire.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

448 pages | 7 x 10 | 24 color, 179 b/w illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4646-9 | $85.00s | £55.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9034-9 | $85.00s | £55.50
A volume in the Material Texts series

 


POLITICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS


Deterring Rational FanaticsDeterring Rational Fanatics
Alex S. Wilner

"Deterring Rational Fanatics provides an accurate and informed assessment of current thinking about deterrence theory and an effort to determine the impact of targeted killings."—James J. Wirtz, School of International Graduate Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey

"Wilner's perceptive analysis and detail-driven empirical work are convincing and well anchored in the broader deterrence debate."—Thomas Rid, King's College London

Deterring Rational Fanatics provides a full-scale discussion of deterrence theory concepts and controversies, assessing the utility of relying on the logic of deterrence to counter contemporary terrorism. Alex S. Wilner's analysis shows that militant behavior can indeed be altered through the logic of deterrence.

Full Description, Table of Contents, and More

264 pages | 6 x 9 | 18 illus.
Hardcover | ISBN 978-0-8122-4668-1 | $65.00s | £42.50
Ebook | ISBN 978-0-8122-9204-6 | $65.00s | £42.50

 


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