Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

Walton here examines how reasoning operates in trials and other legal contexts, with special emphasis on the law of evidence. The model he develops, drawing on the methods of argumentation theory, can be used to identify, analyze and evaluate specific types of legal argument.

A journal, originally published in 1887, describing a 1790 surveying expedition to explore newly purchased land in northwestern Pennsylvania. Includes historical annotations by John F. Meginness.

An English translation, originally published by the Pennsylvania German Society in 1917, of the diary of radical German Pietist Johannes Kelpius (1667-1708). Includes facsimile pages of his prayer book A Short, Easy, and Comprehensive Method of Prayer.

A history, originally published in 1786 and translated in 1889, of the Seventh Day Baptist congregation in Ephrata, from the early Pietist movement in Germany to the founding of Ephrata and other communities in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1730s. Written by two members of the Ephrata community.

A collection of folklore from north-central Pennsylvania, collected by Henry W. Shoemaker and originally published in 1914. Includes photographs by William T. Clarke.

Examines concepts for persuasive communication. Explores the art of rhetoric and how it aids in clarification when we speak to communicate, but also helps to protect us from clarity when we speak to maintain our connections to others.

Reappraises the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union based on the author's 35-year career as a specialist in Soviet and post-Soviet affairs. Explores the psychological universe of Soviet rulers to clarify the nature of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms.

A study of medieval gossip, this work shifts the debate and argues that gossip functions primarily as a transformative discourse, influencing not only social interactions but also literary and religious practices.

For over 40 years Victor Israelyan served in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rising through the ranks to become one of the Soviet Union's leading diplomats specializing in disarmament negotiations. Here he offers an insight into the volatile inner workings of the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

Examines the relations and obligations of committed individuals working to create social change. Addresses issues involving forms of solidarity, the role of violence in activism, the moral and epistemological privilege of the oppressed, the relation between solidarity and social justice, and the prospects for global solidarity.

Argues the case for a foundationalist ethics centrally based on an empirical understanding of human nature. Demonstrates that the tension between the darker and the more positive sides of human nature calls for an interdisciplinary therapeutic resolution.

Examines Nietzsche's approach to what he called "the tragic age of the Greeks" as the foundation not only for his attack upon the birth of philosophy during the "Socratic era," but also for his overall critique of Western culture.

Explores the role played by technocrats in the political and institutional evolution of Chile since the late nineteenth century until today, with emphasis on the period from 1938-1973 as well as the period following democratic restoration in 1990.

Many modern conservatives and feminists trace the roots of their ideologies, respectively, to Edmund Burke (1729-1797) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797). Here, according to the author Burke is misconstrued if viewed as mainly providing a warning about the dangers of attempting to turn utopian visions into political reality.

Today many Catholics know Saint Anne as the mother of the Blessed Virgin and the protector of women in labor, but few know how she came to be a figure of devotion. Mary's Mother brings her story to life for general readers as well as scholars and students of history, art history, religious studies, and women's studies.

A collection of essays that discuss representative eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French and English views of American democracy and society, and offer a critical assessment of various narrative constructions of American life, society, and culture.

This volume is divided into two parts, "Theoretical Sciences" and "Practical and Productive Sciences", reflecting the traditional structure of works in the Aristotelian corpus. It provides an understanding of Aristotle's work and of a feminist methodology in approaching contemporary issues.

Draws evidence from eight municipalities in Brazil to show the varying degrees of success and failure PB has experienced. This title identifies why some PB programs have done better than others in achieving the twin goals of ensuring governmental accountability and empowering citizenship rights for the poor residents of these cities.

An interdisciplinary collection of essays examining the role of women in right-wing political activism around the world, from the Afrikaner movement in South Africa in the early twentieth century to the supporters of Sarah Palin in the United States.

Argues that the ideology of neoliberal reform, rooted in the theories of Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman, assumed political checks and balances that did not exist in many of developing and post-Communist countries undergoing market reform.

This work is a major translation of one of the most important genres of the lost literature of the ancient synagogue. Known as the Avodah piyyutim, this liturgical poetry was composed by the synagogue poets of 5th to 9th-century Palestine and sung in the synagogues on Yom Kippur.

Covering sensationism, a philosophy of the French Enlightenment and 18th-century French literature, this study presents the main ideas of sensationism philosophers such as Condillac, Bonnet and Helvetius. An examination of the mind-body problem is also included in the discussion.

Vladko Maček (1879-1964) was born in a small Croatian village and received his law degree in 1903 from the University of Zagreb. One of the early members of the Croatian Peasant Party, he was closely associated with its founders, Ante and Stephen Radić. After the dissolution of the Habsburg empire, Croatia became a part of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and the Croatian Peasant Party emerged as one of the strongest political factions.Elected to the Belgrade Constituent Assembly in 1920, the author became head of the party when Stephen Radić was assassinated in 1928. But King Alexander established a personal dictatorship the following year, and Maček was imprisoned until after the king himself was murdered in 1934. During the latter half of the decade, the Croatian Peasant Party cooperated with several Serbian parties, and despite rigged elections, the combined opposition almost ousted the government in 1938.The deteriorating international situation finally forced composition of Serb-Croat differences, and Croatia was granted substantial autonomy in the sporazum (agreement) of August 1939. Maček became vice-premier in the Belgrade government, and Yugoslavia''s worst internal problem seemed solved. But with the collapse of France in 1940, the threat from Hitler and Mussolini became acute, and Yugoslavia was finally forced to adhere to the Tripartite Pact (Germany-Italy-Japan). When a coup d''état by pro-Allied officers in Belgrade reversed the situation on March 27, 1941, Maček at first refused to have any part in the new government. At the same time he rebuffed all Axis approaches and, as the German consulate in Zagreb reported on April 3, "categorically rejected any discussion about an independent Greater Croatia." That afternoon he agreed to resume his old post as vice-premier. Germany attacked Yugoslavia three days later, however, and on April 16 the government fled to Greece.But Maček refused to leave the country and instead returned to Croatia, where he remained in prison or under house arrest until May 1945, when he and his family were able to flee to Austria and the protection of the U.S. Army. After the war the author settled in Washington, D.C., where he helped found the International Peasant Union, representing the suppressed peasant parties of eastern Europe."Few memoirs are so revealing and rewarding as these," writes E. C. Helmreich; "there may be those who differ with him, but his account of what happened rings true." Not the least of the rewards are Maček''s judgments of men and politics, as relevant in 1969 as they were in 1939-for example, his observation that "peasants are the least tempted to become leftists: long political experience has taught me that it is the educated, or semi-educated people, who are most apt to become extremists either of the left or of the right." Or his defense of a voting age of twenty-four in the Croatian electoral law: it "may seem reactionary to some people. But I was convinced then that young people do not have enough experience to size up a given political situation and objectively decide intricate political issues. The fact that Hitler, Mussolini, Pavelić and the Communists recruited their most ardent followers among immature youngsters has done nothing to change my opinion."

A collection of essays examining how print culture shaped the legacy of the Enlightenment. Explores the challenges, contradictions, and dilemmas modern European societies have encountered since the eighteenth century in trying to define, spread, and realize Enlightenment ideas and values.

Examines the processes of acceleration in politics, economic, culture, and society at large. Focuses on why and how the high-speed contours of crucial forms of social activity now shape so many facets of human existence, and suggests possible responses.

Explores the origins and the reciprocal influences of globalization and the recent economic crisis, and suggests what new ideological foundations and geographic regions will be ascendant.

A compilation of policy-relevant research by a multidisciplinary group of scholars on the state of families in rural America in the twenty-first century. Examines the impact of economic restructuring on rural Americans and provides policy recommendations for addressing the challenges they face.