 | by Melvin G. Holli Historians, biographers, and social scientists rank the "best" and "worst of" Americas big-city mayors, from the beginning of the modern office in 1820 to the 1990s. "Big-city government has become a neglected subject in recent years. May Holli stir up interest again with this provocative, enjoyable work." --New York Times Book Review. 0-271-01877-1 Penn State University Press, $18.95 PB | |
 | by Gene Sosin The story of how a U.S. broadcasting station helped win the Cold War. "Mr. Sosin's book is significant for more than its entertainment and historical value, although both are ample.It is a road map for broadcasters of the future to follow as they create Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Iraq, stations aimed at liberating those who live under the dictatorial regimes at Baghdad, Beijing, and Pyongyang." --Forward. "An insiders look at a little-known chapter of Cold War history, [often] drawing on confidential and previously unpublished documents." --Publishers Weekly. Illustrated with photographs. 0-271-01869-0 Penn State University Press, $34.95 Cloth | |
 | by John D. Fair A history of the York Barbell Company, focusing on its founder, Bob Hoffman, and the unique physical culture movement he launched. "Muscletown USA will quickly be viewed as THE standard reference work for people interested in the modern history of weight training. It fills a large void in our knowledge of twentieth-century American sports." --Jan Todd, University of Texas, Austin. 0-271-01855-0 Penn State University Press, $23.50 PB | |
 | by John Higham "A thoughtful and non-polemical treatment of topics that too often are discussed in ways that generate more heat than light. ... No other work succeeds so admirably or so succinctly in explaining why, at the end of the twentieth century, race relations in the United States exhibit such deeply contradictory trends." --Willard B. Gatewood, Journal of Southern History. 0-271-01932-8 Penn State University Press, $18.95 PB | |
 | by Richard N. Juliani The story of how early Italians in Philadelphia formed a community that would provide a home for later immigrants. "Building Little Italy is a serious work of scholarship that sheds considerable light on areas of history and population study where previously there were by shadows." --Albert DiBartolomeo, The Philadelphia Inquirer. 0-271-01732-5 Penn State University Press, $19.95 PB | |
 | by Christine de Pizan, translated by Sumner Willard and edited by Charity Cannon Willard The first modern English translation of this classic medieval work on the art of warfare. Previous translations treated Christine de Pizan with disdain because of her gender, but in this edition, she receives the credit she deserves 0-271-01881-X Penn State University Press, $18.95 PB | |
 | by Richard Kieckhefer An edition of one of the most interesting and important manuscripts of medieval magic that has yet come to light. "The best book on magic in the late Middle Ages and a great introduction to the problematic relations of magic and religion in general." --H. C. Erik Midelfort, University of Virginia. 0-271-01751-1 Penn State University Press, $19.95 PB | |
 | by Christopher A. Snyder A history of Britain during the two centuries after Rome's withdrawal from the Island. "Snyder combines material from a wide variety of written sources with the findings of archaeology to offer a revision of what was once conventional wisdom....A strong and clear statement of one side of a complicated and intriguing historical argument." --Choice. 0-271-01780-5 Penn State University Press, $22.50 PB |