Books published by Pennsylvania State University Press

Philadelphia's first Italian immigrants arrived in the mid-18th century with artists, scholars, tradesmen and entrepreneurs establishing a community - one of the first "Little Italies" in America. This study tells the story of the community and profiles the immigrant experience in its early stages.

Presents a collection of folktales by Henry W Shoemaker, Pennsylvania's first official folklorist.

Presents a panorama of beliefs reflecting every aspect of Pennsylvania German life, from superstitions about childbirth and babies to concerns over marriage, farming, religion, medicine, and death. A section on sex that was originally available only to readers who requested it ""for purely scientific use"" has been included as an appendix to the Metalmark edition.

Religious travellers were a common sight in the Mediterranean world during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In fact, as Maribel Dietz finds, this period in the history of Christianity witnessed an explosion of travel, as both men and women took to the roads, seeking spiritual meaning in a life of itinerancy.

A study of the cultural politics of loss and mourning in France from 1978 to the present. Focuses on national identity, secularism, Jacobin republicanism, and political-cultural exceptionalism.

A study of United States-Bolivian in the post-World War II era. Explores attempts by Bolivian revolutionary leaders to both secure United States assistance and to obtain time and space to develop their policies and plans.

Translations of ninth-century lives of the emperors Charlemagne (by Einhard and Notker) and his son Louis the Pious (by Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer). Presented chronologically and contextually, with commentary.

The story of Abraham Lincoln in the Keystone State - a chronicle of where he went, what he did, and what he said in the state. The trail begins with Lincoln's Pennsylvanian ancestors, moves on to his travels, public appearances and speeches, and concludes with his funeral train in 1865.

Explores what facilitates or hinders social group attempts to influence the process of economic restructuring and reconstruction of state-society relations by focusing on organized labor's response to privatization of the public sector during the first decade of reforms. Compares Poland, Egypt, Mexico and the Czech Republic.

A collection of articles that address Jane Addams (1860-1935) in terms of her contribution to feminist philosophy and theory through her work on culture, art, sex, society, religion, and politics.

Examines the founding in 1850 of the first library in the White House purchased with public funds, which was intended to remain there as a permanent collection. Documents the contents of the library and considers it within the political, social, and intellectual milieu of mid-nineteenth-century America.

An eyewitness account by an American diplomat of the events that led up to Slovakia's independence in 1993. Includes an examination of Slovakia's post-independence development.

Within the popular consciousness, Emma Goldman has become something of an icon, a symbol for rebellion and women's rights. This book presents essays that resist a simplistic understanding of Goldman and instead attempts to examine her thinking in its proper social, historical, and philosophical context.

Traces the evolution of New York's publishing trade from the end of the American Revolution to the Age of Jackson. Explores the gradual development of local, regional, and national distribution networks in the early republic.

A collection of essays exploring the role of textual studies in understanding and editing texts, and in understanding the historical developments and cultural differences in editorial and archival systems.

A collection of essays on the methodology of rhetorical hermeneutics. Takes a historically and theoretically informed approach to textual interpretation, focusing on the production, circulation, and reception of written and performed communication.

Collection of essays by Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946), founding chief of the U.S. Forest Service and twice governor of Pennsylvania. The social, political, and scientific insights in these essays anticipate many contemporary environmental-policy dilemmas and the growing demand for environmental justice.

Explores how memories of Lincoln became an important form of political rhetoric, and how divergent schools of U.S. political thought came to recruit Lincoln as their standard-bearer.

A collection of essays on various aspects of the position of magic in the modern world. Essays explore the ways in which modernity has been defined in explicit opposition to magic and superstition, and the ways in which modern proponents of magic have worked to legitimate their practices.

An annotated and translated collection of instructions on religion, health, sexuality, and family life from the eighteenth-century Moravian Church.

Examines the ghost stories of writer and academic Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936). Focuses on the intersection between his scholarly work and his fiction, arguing that his two careers are intriguingly intertwined.

An annotated and translated collection of instructions on religion, health, sexuality, and family life from the eighteenth-century Moravian Church.

A comprehensive study of Kimbanguism, founded by Simon Kimbangu in 1921. Compares it to other African-initiated churches, and examines its role, alongside other global religious movements, in Black liberation.

An abridged, annotated translation of Girolamo Benzoni's 1572 History of the New World, which describes firsthand encounters between Europeans and Native Americans, New World geography, and indigenous flora and fauna.