Spring/Summer 2011 Catalog

Doctored

Doctored is a highly original and thoughtful study that illuminates the rich ties between nineteenth-century American portrait photography and medical practice. It illustrates how the nascent medium of photography gained legitimacy by forging ties to science and explores the deeply rooted belief in photography as a cure for social and even physical ills.” —Martin A. Berger, University of California, Santa Cruz

Alter Icons

“This elegant volume, replete with full-color plates and multiple illustrations, demonstrates that far from falling into ‘decline,’ ‘decay,’ or ‘loss’ from its encounter with modern aesthetics, the Russian icon continues to serve its ‘intermedial,’ ‘liminal’ function, remaining a phenomenon of the paradoxical ‘living tradition’ that is Orthodoxy.” —Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, University of Wisconsin–Madison

From Diversion to Subversion

“Far too often the seriousness of high art has been invoked at the expense of compelling art’s sheer gratuitousness, irrepressible impertinence, and spontaneous playfulness. A welcome and particularly bracing overturning of this staid approach is David J. Getsy’s From Diversion to Subversion.” —Robert Hobbs, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityLearn More »

Walter Pach (1883-1958)

“No student of modern art should miss this thorough and fascinating study of one of the most important figures of the time, still little known except to specialists.” —William C. Agee, Hunter College, CUNY

Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan FundLearn More »

Humanism and the Urban World

In Humanism and the Urban World, Caspar Pearson offers a profoundly revisionist account of Leon Battista Alberti’s approach to the urban environment as exemplified in the extensive theoretical treatise De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building in Ten Books), brought mostly to completion in the 1450s, as well as in his larger body of written work. Past scholars have generally characterized the Italian Renaissance architect and theorist as an enthusiast of the city who envisioned it as a rational, Renaissance ideal.

Gothic Art and Thought in the Later Medieval Period

Despite the fact that the Gothic is one of the best known and most studied of all the fields of medieval art history, much remains for us to learn. Stretching in time from the early thirteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century and in space from the western shores of Ireland to the eastern borders of Europe, it is a style with many subdivisions and dialects.

Translating Nature into Art

“Nuechterlein explores just what her title declares—how across the course of his tumultuous career Holbein translated nature into art, pioneering in his distinctive fashion a vision of picturing that fortified European painting for centuries to come.” —Larry Silver, University of PennsylvaniaLearn More »

Vision and the Visionary in Raphael

“With a rare combination of precise and probing visual analysis and searching historical and textual scholarship, Christian Kleinbub opens entirely new prospects on the artist who personifies our concept of High Renaissance. Vision and the Visionary in Raphael demonstrates the fuller dimensions of a profound pictorial intelligence.” —David Rosand, Columbia UniversityLearn More »

Empress Maria Theresa and the Politics of Habsburg Imperial Art

“This is the most fascinating book published about Maria Theresa in a long, long time. It should certainly be read by anyone interested in Vienna, the Habsburgs, or, more generally, the relation of art and politics in the eighteenth century. Michael Yonan is an immensely stimulating historian and art historian of Central Europe.” —Larry Wolff, New York University

The Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

“Franco Mormando not only provides us with an accurate yet highly readable translation of Bernini's biography, but also substantially contributes to our understanding of the text and the myriad issues and themes involved in it.” —Maarten Delbeke, Ghent University and Leiden University

The Narrative Shape of Truth

This book examines novels by four authors—Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy—as well as the writings of leading European intellectuals and philosophers. Kliger argues that the “realist” novel can be conceived as prompting us (and giving us the means) to think of truth differently, as immanent in a temporal shape rather than transcendent in a principle, a fact, or a higher order.

Narrative, Emotion, and Insight

“Narrative, Emotion, and Insight is a stunning collection of essays on narrative and the arts. Bringing together the most distinguished figures in the field, it offers exciting new reflections on the nature and significance of narrative in film, literature, music, theater, and life. The essays work together to reveal deep connections among the many different philosophical contexts in which narrative plays a part, generating important new insights and pointing to rich new areas of study.” —Marya Schechtman, University of Illinois, Chicago

The Aroma of Righteousness

“The Aroma of Righteousness makes highly original and important contributions to two subject areas that do not normally meet—rabbinic scriptural interpretation, particularly of the Song of Songs, and the religious employment of physical senses, herein scent—especially by locating both in their broader Jewish and general cultural settings. It is a richly rewarding book to read and savor.” —Steven D. Fraade, Yale UniversityLearn More »

Transcending Textuality

“Ariadna García-Bryce’s Transcending Textuality elegantly synthesizes and deftly engages seemingly disparate lines of thought while taking advantage of her well-honed insights into the political overtones of classical rhetoric and its influence on Quevedo. A clearly spectacular picture of Quevedo’s political thought emerges from this book’s pages.” —Charles Victor Ganelin, Miami UniversityLearn More »

Unriddling the Exeter Riddles

“This is a dazzling book, sparkling with easy erudition and wit, and very well written. Patrick Murphy offers a fresh approach to a much-studied group of poems in Old English literature. It will likely be seen as the most significant publication on the Old English riddles since Craig Williamson’s edition of 1977.” —Hugh Magennis, Queen’s University, BelfastLearn More »

Licensing Loyalty

“Jane McLeod’s detailed research helps us see how interest groups like provincial printers helped construct the Old Regime’s regulatory mechanisms. Challenging widespread assumptions about the role of print media in subverting the monarchy, McLeod shows that the Revolution of 1789 would be a challenge as much for printers as for the officials charged with supervising them.” —Jeremy D. Popkin, University of KentuckyLearn More »

Saint and Nation

“Erin Rowe’s absorbing study illuminates how the search for a symbol of national identity ironically exacerbated economic, political, and ideological divisions in a nation that was unified only by the awareness of its own decline.” —Alison Weber, University of VirginiaLearn More »

Melancholy Politics

“Mathy has long been a lucid interpreter of French intellectual history. His new book is particularly timely, as it sheds a historian’s light on the current controversial politics of national identity in France. Mathy shows that it is best understood in the context of a national ‘depression’—and his reflections on ‘melancholy politics’ give precise meaning to what could otherwise be a vague notion.” —Éric Fassin, École normale supérieure, ParisLearn More »

Knowing Otherwise

“The suggestion that the body thinks has roots in Marxist thinking and in the work of some feminists, but Alexis Shotwell’s engaging exploration, defense, and illustration of this idea goes well beyond any previous consideration in European and North American philosophy. Knowing Otherwise will certainly benefit philosophers and will provide philosophical strength and inspiration to activists for social justice.” —Susan Babbitt, Queen’s UniversityLearn More »

Too Young to Run?

“Seery engages the important but neglected subject of the American age qualifications for public office and does so in an extraordinarily broad-gauged way that sheds a great deal of light on American democracy more generally.” —Robert Bennett, Northwestern University School of Law

Feudal America

“In this ingenious and imaginative work, Shlapentokh and Woods point to aspects of the social life of the Middle Ages that are found in the present. A sizable minority of us live in castles, or gated communities, and are protected by our modern-day knights—private security officers. We elect mini-dynasties to provide continuity in political life, and we celebrate our warriors. While modernity illuminates feudal societies, feudal patterns illuminate modernity as well.” —Peter K. Manning, Northeastern UniversityLearn More »

The Time of Popular Sovereignty

“How can ‘the people’ govern when they are always changing and most of them never meet? By depicting ‘the people’ as ever in process, Paulina Ochoa Espejo provides fresh answers to some of the most perplexing problems of modern democratic theory. An important and stimulating contribution.” —Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania

Appeals to Interest

“Why don't citizens vote in their interests? On what grounds can anyone other than the citizen herself say what her interest might be? Mathiowetz's eloquent book breaks through this stalemated debate, explaining the seeming intransigence of these questions as a conceptual confusion rooted in the dominant, individualist and psychological conception of interest as calculating self-regard. This insightful, exciting work brings interest to the center of democratic political thought.” —Lisa Disch, University of Michigan

Reconstructing Rawls

“In Reconstructing Rawls, Robert Taylor develops a sophisticated reading of Kant's moral theory and uses it to critically reconstruct Rawls's justice as fairness. In doing so, he generates many original insights and illuminates the work of both authors. This is a powerful call to embrace a comprehensive Kantian foundation for justice as fairness.” —Jon Mandle, University at Albany, SUNY

Rawlsian Explorations in Religion and Applied Philosophy

“Daniel Dombrowski’s book is an important contribution to our understanding of the implications of Rawls’s political theory for law, policy, politics, and religion. It uses justice as fairness to shed light on many issues—war, animal rights, affirmative action, and religious diversity in a democratic society—that have been relatively neglected in the literature on Rawls.” —Robert S. Taylor, University of California, Davis

The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952 to the Present

“James Siekmeier has produced a model of scholarship in this concise analysis of U.S. relations with Bolivia from the Revolution of 1952 to the present. With superb multi-archival research in Bolivia and the United States, Siekmeier demonstrates the multifaceted nature of the bilateral relationship.” —Stephen G. Rabe, University of Texas at Dallas

Made in Mexico

“Among the best recent monographs on modern Mexico, the book sheds light on national politics, state-building, foreign relations, and the role of the PRI, business, and organized labor in forging the new Mexico of the postwar era.” —Alan Knight, University of OxfordLearn More »

Rural Protest and the Making of Democracy in Mexico, 19682000

“Rural Protest and the Making of Democracy in Mexico provides a unique, in-depth exploration of the underlying causes of Mexico’s democratic electoral transition from 1968 to 2000.” —Roderick Ai Camp, Claremont McKenna College

Before the Revolution

“This book is a pioneering study of the development of a vibrant feminist movement in Nicaragua during the early twentieth century, as well as of the role of a later generation of women who gave conditional support to the Somoza regime in exchange for suffrage and increased political, educational, and economic opportunities.” —Frances Kinloch Tijerino, Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica (IHNCA-UCA)

Forgotten Franciscans

“Martin Nesvig recovers the words and deeds of three long-forgotten Franciscans who were far removed from the archetypal sixteenth-century missionary role, yet were part of the struggle to preserve he Christian religion and transfer it to a new world. There are still some gems to be discovered in the rich archival records of the Inquisition and the Franciscan order, and this work proves it.” —Asuncin Lavrin, Professor Emerita, Department of History, Arizona State University

Decentralization, Democratization, and Informal Power in Mexico

“Andrew Selee has written a compelling, insightful book on decentralization and democracy in Mexico. Based on research that began in 1992, Selee illuminates the changes but also the continuities in the politics of three Mexican municipalities. Selee’s original, nuanced analysis is an extremely valuable contribution to scholarly understanding of democratic institutions.” —Cynthia McClintock, George Washington University

Deepening Local Democracy in Latin America

“An incisive and thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of experiences of participatory democracy in contemporary Latin America.” —F. E. Panizza, The London School of Economics and Political ScienceLearn More »

Mining for the Nation

“The research in Mining for the Nation is highly original. It fills a gap in Chilean labor and mining history, both in English and in Spanish. The book offers a reinterpretation of the Popular Front experience in Chile and the first serious book-length political history of the coal region and the role of the Communist Party there from the 1930s to 1952.” —Brian Loveman, San Diego State University

Contesting Legitimacyin Chile

“Politicians and activists are constantly making reference to family. They use family as a metaphor for political community. They tell us how they will help families. They justify their political actions by referring to their own familial roles. Using Chile as a case study, Gwynn Thomas explains how and why family rhetoric enters politics.” —Karin Rosemblatt, University of Maryland

Decentralization and Recentralization in the Developing World

“Why does decentralization stick in some countries but not in others? How do presidents try to recentralize authority? Under what conditions do they succeed? In the first major book to appear on the politics of recentralization, J. Tyler Dickovick offers compelling answers to these questions.” —Kent Eaton, University of California, Santa Cruz

Decolonizing Democracy

“Christine Keating has made me think afresh not only Locke and Hobbes, but even Pateman. This rich exploration of the deals made and resisted as British colonial elites and Indian nationalists and feminists crafted the new Indian state will be valuable for anyone interested in democracy, postcolonial politics, and the gendering of both.” —Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo's War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War

The Colonels' Coup and the American Embassy

The so-called Colonels’ coup of April 21, 1967, was a major event in the history of the Cold War, ushering in a seven-year period of military rule in Greece. In the wake of the coup, some eight thousand people affiliated with the Communist Party were rounded up, and Greece became yet another country where the fear of Communism led the United States into alliance with a repressive right-wing authoritarian regime.

Governing Disorder

“Laura Zanotti is a distinguished critical scholar in conflict studies and international relations. This book is essential for understanding the intrusive mechanisms, as employed by the United Nations and the so-called international community, that discipline and disempower societies that do not conform to ideals of 'good governance.'” —Michael Pugh, University of Bradford

Choosing Equality

“In clear words, thorough research, and powerful arguments, Hayman and Ware—through their own voices and those of contributors, some of whom were the titans for justice—retell the road to Brown v. Board of Education. They do so through a deep exploration of Delaware’s untold story. A truly important book, Choosing Equality is a must-read.” —Reginald Leamon Robinson, Howard University School of LawLearn More »

Medieval Roles for Modern Times

“Especially moving is her research on Moussa Abadi, who coached Jewish children hiding from the Nazis in the south of France, teaching them theatrical techniques so that they could protect themselves from arrest. An ethnographer, a reader of images, scenes, and voices, and a cultural detective, Helen Solterer is at the forefront of an important new methodology: the study of intersecting centuries, disciplines, and spaces, known in France as l'histoire croisée.” —Alice Kaplan, Yale UniversityLearn More »

High-Speed Society

“Ever since Paul Virilio coined the term ‘dromology’ (the study of speed) in 1977, searching for the meaning of ever speedier change has become a progressively more respectable path of scholarship. This anthology of writings dedicated solely to this topic is the first of its kind, and as such has great value, especially for readers who are unfamiliar with the major thinkers to have considered societal celerity seriously.” —Contemporary Sociology

Battling for Manassas

“This impressive book will interest the many people who share America's extraordinary love affair with Civil War battlefields. It covers the earliest moves to create the Manassas National Battlefield Park up through the Disney controversy. The interpretations are fair and balanced, with many important insights that will be of value in future efforts to combine preservation with responsible economic development.” —James M. McPherson, Princeton University

Mexican Messiah

“[Mexican Messiah] is a must for researchers concentrating on the PRD and will also be of interest to those focusing more generally on Mexican party politics. Given its accessible style and relatively brief theoretical section, it may also be a good read for a more general, non-academic audience.” —Tina Hilgers, The Americas

Peruvian Rebel

“Kathleen Weaver’s biography of Magda Portal brings to life a woman too long lost from our histories—an extraordinary fighter for women’s rights and social justice in Peru, as well as a gifted poet. She is one of the key figures in the twentieth-century struggles of oppressed people in Latin America, and her life story should inspire as well as educate readers of this fine biography.” —Howard Zinn, Boston UniversityLearn More »

Savage Democracy

“Steven Wuhs fills a huge gap in the literature on Mexico’s emerging democratic regime with this systematic comparative study of party development of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s two challengers, the National Action Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution. Drawing on the vast scholarship on political parties and his extensive field research, Wuhs shows how the PAN’s institutional development allowed it to best the PRD in the quest to oust the PRI.” —Joseph L. Klesner, Kenyon CollegeLearn More »

Participatory Budgeting in Brazil

“An essential text for the curious and discerning reader of one of the most important current innovations in Latin American democracy. The text also offers valuable new details on well-known cases, such as Porto Alegre, the original home of PB, as well as explanations and observations of less well-known cases that turned out poorly, such as Blumenau.” —Aaron Schneider, Journal of Latin American Studies

Harnessing Globalization

“While the focus of the book is Latin America, Nelson also provides cases from Ireland and Singapore, adding breadth to the applicability of the conclusions. This volume will be of value to students and practitioners of international business, public policy, and development economics.” —S. Amin Gutirrez de Pieres, Choice

The Voter's Dilemma and Democratic Accountability

“The Voter’s Dilemma and Democratic Accountability: Latin America and Beyond presents an elegant and sophisticated logic of democratic accountability and makes a significant contribution to the literatures on democratic accountability, clientelism, and Latin American studies.” —Gustavo A. Flores-Macas, Political Science Quarterly

Land, Protest, and Politics

“Ondetti provides the most comprehensive and useful work [on this subject], giving a meticulous chronology, statistical report (through 2006), and a well-written analysis of the ebb and flow of invasion activity since it began in the 1980s.” —E. M. Dew, ChoiceLearn More »

Argentina's Radical Party and Popular Mobilization, 19161930

“At a time when historical scholarship on Latin America is awash in postmodern cultural and gender studies, often dealing with subjects of trivial consequence, Joel Horowitz’s book tackles an enormously important subject. His research is extraordinarily deep here and the chapters are brimming with insights.” —James P. Brennan, University of California, Riverside

An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, Written 1789

At a time in U.S. history when negative stereotypes and prejudices toward the Germans in Pennsylvania abounded, Benjamin Rush’s account sought to redeem their image in the eyes of Americans—both citizens and leaders. Rush uses sixteen points to discuss his observation of the habits and culture of the Pennsylvania Germans, portraying them as hardworking and industrious farmers, opposed to debt and excess.Learn More »

Rauch's Pennsylvania Dutch Hand-Book

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Pennsylvania German, often referred to as “Deitsh” or “Dutch,” was spoken by a third of the state’s population, yet up until that time, few had attempted to document the typically oral tradition in writing. E. H. Rauch was considered an early leader among those dedicated to exposing the dialect to the masses through print.

Old Schuylkill Tales

Ella Zerbey Elliott’s Old Schuylkill Tales, published in 1906, presents today’s readers with an array of turn-of-the-century stories, anecdotes, and reminiscences of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, from its earliest settlement in the eighteenth century to its foundation as a county and growth into a major hub of mining and industry.

North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy

Compiled by Shoemaker over two decades, with the assistance of John C. French and John H. Chatham, this volume includes over one hundred songs and ballads from Union, Snyder, Centre, Lycoming, Clinton, Tioga, Potter, McKean, Forest, Cameron, Elk, and Clearfield Counties in Pennsylvania.