Books

Allan Franklin provides an overview of notable experiments in particle physics. Using papers published in Physical Review, the journal of the American Physical Society, as his basis, Franklin details the experiments themselves, their data collection, the events witnessed, and the interpretation of results. From these papers, he distills the dramatic changes to particle physics experimentation from 1894 through 2009.

This book by a major American poet is for poetry readers at all levels, academic and non-academic. It is a sequence of poems that will surprise and delight readers—in the voices of an old woman full of memories, a glamorous tulip, and an earthy dog who always has the last word.

Philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand (1905-1982) is a cultural phenomenon. Yet Rand’s work has until recently received little serious attention from academics. This new series seeks a fuller scholarly understanding of this highly original and influential thinker. The chapters in this volume address the basis of her egoism in a virtue-centered normative ethics; her account of how moral norms in general are themselves based on a fundamental choice by an agent to value his own life; and how her own approach to the foundations of ethics is to be compared and contrasted with familiar approaches in the analytic ethical tradition.

Angelique Bamberg provides the first book-length study of the community of Chatham Village in Pittsburgh. She establishes its historical significance to urban planning and reveals the complex development process, social significance, and breakthrough construction and landscaping techniques that shaped this idyllic community.

Spanish King of the Incas tells the fascinating story of a Spanish commoner who participated in the conquest of Latin America, then changed loyalties. He declared himself a king among the Calchaqui Indians and was eventually executed for his role in an Inca rebellion in 1667.

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.