Books

Winner of the 2008 Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Varallo’s short story collection gives voice to the disconnections of family and relationships, and the silent emotions that often speak louder than words. It tells of longings for meaningful expression and the complexities and escapism of human interactions that keep us from these truths.

Philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science offer a multidisciplinary view of the complex interrelationships of values in science and society, in both contemporary and historic contexts. They analyze the impact of commercialization and politicization on epistemic aspirations, and conversely, the ethical dilemmas raised by “practically relevant” science in today’s society.

Winner of the 2007 Art Libraries Society of North America Worldwide Books Award

Examines Pittsburgh’s built environment as it relates to the city’s unique topography—man’s response to an unruly terrain of hills, hollows, and rivers. Adopting a spectator’s viewpoint, Aurand studies three “terrestrial rooms” and their development over time.

Imperial is a collection of poems, both serious and hilarious, ranging in subject matter from marriage, divorce, popular culture, to the pitfalls, perils, and predicaments of middle-aged, middle-class, mid-American suburban life.

On the Street of Divine Love is a collection of twenty-five years of Barbara Hamby’s poems—word drunk excursions into the American female consciousness with stops in Italy, Paris, and London.

Bloom in Reverse moves from death to life as it chronicles the aftermath of a friend’s suicide and the end of a turbulent relationship, working through devastation and loss while on a search for solace that spans from local bars to online dating and beyond to ultimately find true connection and sustaining love.

Vicky A. Clark presents a comprehensive study of the work of iconic Pittsburgh artist Robert Qualters. Complimented by over eighty color images, Clark shows Qualters to be a remarkable visual storyteller, who infuses allegory, narrative, and memory into his kinetic images filled with bold brush strokes and fauvist colors.

Robert Qualters has been named Pennsylvania Artist of the Year for 2014, as part of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts

The poems in Tiger Heron examine intimate lesbian friendships over a lifespan, while also reaching into core human experiences, such as the deaths of parents. Becker similarly explores relationships between humans and other creatures. Her villanelles and other shaped stanzas showcase contemporary formalism.

This book explores little-known dimensions of the Holocaust on Soviet territory: how the Soviet state and citizens reacted to the annihilation of the Jewish population and how to understand the role of local participants.

Sound of the Ax is a collection of over 400 wise and witty sayings and 26 aphoristic poems by one of the essential poets of the twentieth century, William Stafford.

Throughout history, people have appropriated and reconstructed rhetorical and religious resources to create effective arguments. In the process, they have remade both themselves and their communities. This volume offers notable examples of these reconstructions, ranging from arguments that occurred during the formation of Christianity to contemporary arguments about the relationship of religious and academic ways of knowing.

The role of Western NGOs in the transition of postcommunist nations to democracy has been well documented. In this study, Paulina Pospieszna follows a different trajectory, examining the role of a former aid recipient (Poland), newly democratic itself, and its efforts to aid democratic transitions in the neighboring states of Belarus and Ukraine.

Emily Pugh provides an original comparative analysis of selected works of architecture and urban planning in East and West Berlin during the “Wall era,” to reveal the importance of these structures to the formation of political, cultural, and social identities.

Toxic Airs brings together historians of medicine, environmental historians, historians of science and technology, and interdisciplinary scholars to address atmospheric issues at a spectrum of scales from body to place to planet. The chapters analyze airborne and atmospheric threats posed to humans. The contributors demonstrate how conceptions of toxicity have evolved over many centuries and how humans have both created and mitigated toxins in the air.

Recent global security threats, economic instability, and political uncertainty have placed great scrutiny on the requirements for U.S. citizenship. The stipulation of literacy has long been one of these criteria. In Producing Good Citizens, Amy J. Wan examines the historic roots of this phenomenon, looking specifically to the period just before World War I, up until the Great Depression. During this time, the United States witnessed a similar anxiety over the influx of immigrants, economic uncertainty, and global political tensions.Citing numerous literacy theorists, Wan analyzes the correlation of reading and writing skills to larger currents within American society. She shows how early literacy training coincided with the demand for laborers during the rise of mass manufacturing, while also providing an avenue to economic opportunity for immigrants.

Kindle eBook Available

iPad eBook

Nook eBook Available