University of Pennsylvania Press - Böcker

Which civilization had the first system of law? The first formal educational system? The first tax cut? The first love song? The answers were found in excavations of ancient Sumer, a society so developed, resourceful, and enterprising that it, in ...

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The popular image of the Viking as a horn-helmeted berserker plying the ocean in a dragon-headed long boat is firmly fixed in history. Imagining Viking "conquerors" as much more numerous, technologically superior, and somehow inherently more warli...

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Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web provides for the first time a plainspoken and thorough introduction to the web for historians-teache...

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How, Barbara Newman asks, did the myth of the separable heart take such a firm hold in the Middle Ages, from lovers exchanging hearts with one another to mystics exchanging hearts with Jesus? What special traits gave both saints and demoniacs thei...

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This military handbook, attributed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (582-602), is an invaluable source not only for early Byzantine history, but also for the history of the art of war. Intended as a guide for field commanders and campaigners, the ...

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There is a longstanding confusion of Johann Fust, Gutenberg's one-time business partner, with the notorious Doctor Faustus. The association is not surprising to Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, for from its very early days the printing press was viewed by...

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Stephen A. Mitchell here offers the fullest examination available of witchcraft in late medieval Scandinavia. He focuses on those people believed to be able-and who in some instances thought themselves able-to manipulate the world around them thro...

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Zeus and the other gods of shining Olympus were in reality divine only by popular consent. Over the course of time Olympian luster diminished in favor of religious experiences more immediate to the concerns of people living in an increasingly cosm...

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The Trotula was the most influential compendium of women's medicine in medieval Europe. Scholarly debate has long focused on the traditional attribution of the work to the mysterious Trotula, said to have been the first female professor of medicin...

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Without the complex military machine that his forebears had built up over the course of the eighth century, it would have been impossible for Charlemagne to revive the Roman empire in the West. Early Carolingian Warfare is the first book-length st...

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In 1624 the Dutch West India Company established the colony of Brazil. Only thirty years later, the Dutch Republic handed over the colony to Portugal, never to return to the South Atlantic. Because Dutch Brazil was the first sustained Protestant c...

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As a veteran campaigner, the Byzantine emperor Maurice (582-602) compiled a unique and influential handbook intended for the field commander. In this first complete English translation, the Strategikon is an invaluable source not only for early By...

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For decades, Latin America has been plagued by civil wars, dictatorships, torture, legacies of colonialism, racism, and inequality. The region has also experienced dramatic-if uneven-human rights improvements, shedding light on the politics of tra...

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Sumerian Mythology Revised Edition Samuel Noah Kramer "A real addition to the body of world mythology."--American Anthropologist "No people has contributed more to the culture of mankind than the Sumerians, and yet it has been only in recent years...

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On the great influence of a valiant lord: "The companions, who see that good warriors are honored by the great lords for their prowess, become more determined to attain this level of prowess." On the lady who sees her knight honored: "All of this ...

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Koniggratz, a city overlooking the river Elbe, was a western strongpoint of the Austrian Empire. On the morning of July 3, 1866, Prussia attacked the city against high odds and defeated the Austrian army in a single day, despite the Austrian advan...

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An investigation of the connections between the parallel rise of modern Hebrew and modern media After lying dormant for two millennia as a mainly written language, Hebrew awoke from its literary slumber to become a living modern vernacular. This r...

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The two-state solution is doomed; the one-state reality is here to stay Why have Israelis and Palestinians failed to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict that has cost so much and lasted so long? In Paradigm Lost, Ian S. Lustick brings fif...

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With the recent controversy in the Oakland, California school district about Ebonics-or as it is referred to in sociolinguistic circles, African American Vernacular English or Black English Vernacular-much attention has been paid to the patterns o...

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Pierre RichÉ traces the emergence of Europe from the seventh to the early eleventh century, the period that witnessed the rise, fall, and revival of the Carolinian Empire. It was during this time the first contours of a broad new civilization and ...

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An interdisciplinary collection, Gender and Culture at the Limit of Rights examines the potential and limitations of the "women's rights as human rights" framework as a strategy for seeking gender justice. Drawing on detailed case studies from the...

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"We live in a museum age," writes Steven Conn in Do Museums Still Need Objects? And indeed, at the turn of the twenty-first century, more people are visiting museums than ever before. There are now over 17,500 accredited museums in the United Stat...

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The beer of today-brewed from malted grain and hops, manufactured by large and often multinational corporations, frequently associated with young adults, sports, and drunkenness-is largely the result of scientific and industrial developments of th...

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Queen Isabel of Castile is perhaps best known for her patronage of Christopher Columbus and for the religious zeal that led to the Spanish Inquisition, the waging of holy war, and the expulsion of Jews and Muslims across the Iberian peninsula. In ...

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During World War II, the United States helped vanquish the Axis powers by converting its enormous economic capacities into military might. Producing nearly two-thirds of all the munitions used by Allied forces, American industry became what Presid...

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From the riddling song of a bawdy onion that moves between kitchen and bedroom to the thrilling account of Beowulf's battle with a treasure-hoarding dragon, from the heart-rending lament of a lone castaway to the embodied speech of the cross upon ...

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In antiquity and the Middle Ages, memory was a craft, and certain actions and tools were thought to be necessary for its creation and recollection. Until now, however, many of the most important visual and textual sources on the topic have remaine...

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A fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped th...

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Young people have been at the forefront of political conflict in many parts of the world, even when it has turned violent. In some of those situations, for a variety of reasons, including coercion, poverty, or the seductive nature of violence, chi...

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How does your opponent put that tricky spin on the ball? Why are some serves easier to return than others? The mysteries behind the winning strokes, equipment, and surfaces of the game of tennis are accessibly explained by Howard Brody through the...

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