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.
Initially published by Penn State Press in 1965, Catherine Enggass’s translation of Filippo Baldinucci’s Life of Bernini was the first English-language edition of this historic biography. Out of print for many years, The Life of Bernini is now available in a new paperback edition with an introduction by Maarten ......
Between 1912 and 1914, Fernand Léger executed a large cycle of works known as the Contrasts of Forms. The series embraces the genres of landscape, still life, and figure, but at its core are numerous arresting compositions that sweep aside observation to focus on formal principles. The common denominator is a complex vocabulary of ......
Occupations of the Months and Signs of the Zodiac in the Index of Christian Art
This volume is a rich resource for the study of time as represented by the signs of the zodiac and occupations of the months, documented in the comprehensive files of the Index of Christian Art at Princeton University.
The measurement and documentation of time has been a universal issue since the dawn of civilization—and no ......
Conceptual and Practical Obstacles to Improving Judicial Performance in Latin America
Judicial reform became an important part of the agenda for development in Latin America early in the 1980s, when countries in the region started the process of democratization. Connections began to be made between judicial performance and market-based growth, and development specialists turned their attention to “second generation” ......
This unique history offers the most detailed and best documented account of the early years of the CIA currently available. It reveals the political and bureaucratic struggles that accompanied the creation of the modern U. S. intelligence community. In addition, it proposes a theory of effective intelligence organization, applied both to the ......
In Romantic theories of art and literature, the notion of mimesis—defined as art’s reflection of the external world—became introspective and self-reflexive as poets and artists sought to represent the act of creativity itself. Frederick Burwick seeks to elucidate this Romantic aesthetic, first by offering an understanding of ......
The New Political Economy of Welfare Third Edition
Over the past decade, Beyond the Welfare State? has become established as the key text on the emergence and development of welfare states. It offers a comprehensive and remarkably well-informed introduction to the ever more intense debates that surround the history and, still more importantly, the future of welfare in advanced ......
“Frauenlob” was the stage name of Heinrich von Meissen (c. 1260–1318), a medieval German poet-minstrel. A famous and controversial figure in his day, Frauenlob (meaning “praise of ladies”) exercised a strong influence on German literature into the eighteenth century. This book introduces the poet to ......
Serving Our Forests, Waters, Wildlife, and Wood Industries
Forestry education in Pennsylvania has a long, proud tradition, having begun earlier than in most other states. By 1897, twenty land-grant colleges, including Penn State, had introduced the subject of forestry, typically in botany courses. Professional forestry education in Pennsylvania originated in 1903, when the Pennsylvania State Forest ......