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.
In this book Melinda Zook examines the political culture of England during the 1670s and 1680s. She singles out an underground network of radical conspirators and propagandists who have been virtually ignored by historians. These men, and some women, were working to ensure a Protestant succession of the monarchy. In the course of their ......
The Church Rate Conflict in England and Wales 1852-1868
This book, covering the period 1832 to 1868, describes how the so-called "church rates" controversy contributed to the rise of a secular liberal state in England and Wales. The church rate was an ancient tax required of all ratepayers, regardless of denomination, for the upkeep of parish churches of the Church of England. This meant ......
In the most comprehensive selection of his letters ever published, Norman Gates allows Richard Aldington to tell the story of his life in his own words. Unlike Aldington's autobiography, Life for Life's Sake, published twenty years before his death, these letters include those two important decades of his life and do not depend upon ......
Showing Lawrence's familiarity with biblical typology from both written and visual sources, Virginia Hyde explores its many ironic and paradoxical versions in his works. She demonstrates his use of typological precursors of Christ, such as Adam and David, Moses and Aaron, and his development of a coherent cosmology centered on the cross and the ......
The Galpin-Taylor Years in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1919-1953
From 1919 through 1953, the U.S. Department of Agriculture housed the Division of Farm Population and Rural Life—the first unit within the federal government established specifically for sociological research. Distinguished sociologists Charles Galpin and Carl Taylor provided key leadership for 32 of its 34 years as the Division sought to ......
Authority and Power in the Restructuring of an American Denomination
Unlike other recent studies of the Southern Baptists, Southern Baptist Politics was written after the culmination of the "Baptist battles" of the 1980s, when Fundamentalists had effectively taken control of the denomination. It also considers the SBC not simply as a denomination but as an organization with characteristics ......
"I have been privileged to live in a queer time; I have witnessed the possibilities of both transcendence and horror. Beneath the mélange of comely and loathsome, I found a hope hidden in contemporary existence: one can set out on a quest, a search for the truth of the whole, the good of one's life. In spite of the stumbling, the ......
Asceticism and Authority in the Second-Century Pagan World
Much attention has been devoted in recent years to Christian asceticism in Late Antiquity. But Christianity did not introduce asceticism to the ancient world. An underlying theme of this fascinating study of pagan asceticism is that much of the work on Christian "holy men" has ignored earlier manifestations of asceticism in Antiquity ......
Spanish, Nahua, and Maya Accounts of the Conquest Wars
After invading highland Guatemala in 1524, Spaniards claimed to have smashed the Kaqchikel and K’iche’ Maya kingdoms and to have forged a new colony—with their leader, Pedro de Alvarado, as Guatemala’s conquistador. This volume shows that the real story of the Spanish invasion was very different. Designed to be an ......
