Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

A guide, geared toward all levels of botanical knowledge, to identifying over 300 species of grasses found in four physiographic provinces within the Mid-Atlantic Region.

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.

Focuses on Eugene Delacroix's fascination with the idea of civilization and the ways this idea informed the artist's writing, murals, and paintings of North Africa and animals.

A collection of twelve illustrated essays modeling innovative approaches to reading Chaucer's visual poetics. Essays explore connections between Chaucer's texts and various forms of visual data, medieval and modern, that can deepen and inform our understanding of Chaucer's poetry.

Provides an overview of the commonality of life on Earth. Inspired by the idea of symbiosis in evolution, the book explores the challenges and behaviors shared by creatures from bacteria to humans and all those in between.

Explores the philosophical significance of gluttony in Paradise Lost, arguing that a complex understanding of gluttony and of ideal, grateful, and gracious eating informs the content of Milton's writing.

Examines Milton's identification with characters in Jesus's parables. Connects Milton's engagement with the parables to his self-representation throughout his poetry and prose.

An interdisciplinary study examining the diverse meanings of the Warsaw Ghetto in American culture. Looks at how the ghetto has been represented in fine art, book illustrations, film, television, radio, theater, fiction, poetry, and comics.

A collection of essays exploring prominent African American artists' engagement with Christian themes. Essays examine the ways in which an artist's engagement with religious symbols can be an expression of concerns related to racial, political, and socio-economic identity.

Explores the practice of alchemy in the context of the religious and political tensions in late Elizabethan and early Stuart England, and the use of occult knowledge to demonstrate proof of theological doctrines.

An annotated English translation of the fourteenth-century French prose romance Melusine, by Jean d'Arras.

Looks at sites and events in Pennsylvania to explore the emergence of heritage culture about industry and its loss in America. Traces the shaping of public memory of coal, steel, railroading, lumber, oil, and agriculture, and the story it tells about both local and national identity.

Discusses the role of the intellectual in public life. Argues that the scarcity of public intellectuals among today's academics is a challenge to us to explore alternative, more subtle forms of political intelligence. Looks to ancient, medieval, and modern traditions of learned advocacy.

Studies aroma in Jewish life and literature in Palestine in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. Uses the history and material culture of perfume and incense as a lens to view daily activities.

Documents and studies colonial-era cast-iron stoves of Pennsylvania German origin. Originally published in 1914.

A history of Johnstown, published in 1890, from the colonial period to the 1889 flood, when the South Fork Dam on the Conemaugh River failed. Features a journalistic account of the flood.

A collection of essays on the historical representation and display of animals. Using examples from the eighteenth century to the present, the essays situate case studies in historical and sociocultural context while addressing the importance of visibility for the arrangement and sustenance of human-animal relations.

A textual interpretation of the book of Job, the Gospel of Matthew, the Epistle of James, and Revelation. Includes analysis of the utopian imagination at work in a borderline exegesis.

A collection of literary folklore from central Pennsylvania, originally published in 1912.

Originally published by the Altoona Tribune Company in 1919. Contains observations and reflections on the migration patterns and behavior of the passenger pigeon, as well as contributions from local amateur ornithologists and nature enthusiasts, including a chapter written by Henry Shoemaker.

An English translation of the Renaissance treatise on painting by the Milanese artist Giovan Paolo Lomazzo (1538-1592). Drawing on a wide range of influences, including Leonardo's legacy, Neoplatonic cosmology, and the occult, Lomazzo affirms the development of every artist's unique, expressive style or maniera.

Explores the writings of Rousseau, including Emile, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, and On the Social Contract, focusing on the problem of judgment and its role in creating the condition for genuine self-rule.

Examines the history of national identity in Ecuador from 1857 to 1946. Brings together recent work in rhetoric, visual culture, transnationalism, and Latin American studies to explore the different visions of indigenous people that circulated in speeches, periodicals, and art.

Explores the place of friendship in helping French society and the political system recover from the upheaval of the Revolution. Examines the interdependence of public and private in post-revolutionary France, as well as the central role of women in political reconstruction.

A transdisciplinary collection of essays focusing on David Hume as historian, and arguing that his "historical" and "philosophical" works are more intimately connected than scholars have often assumed.

Shows that the body of Augustine's work has much to offer as feminists explore, challenge, and reframe his thinking while forging different paradigms for construing gender, power, and notions of divinity.