Give the gift of books from JHU Press!

December 19, 2014

The JHU Press publishes beautiful, influential, award-wining books on a variety of subjects. From a history of the Folger Shakespeare Library to a full-color celebration of Amish quilts to an insider’s look at the Large Hadron Collider, books from JHUP make terrific gifts for series readers. For reviews and more information or to place an order, click on the titles below. To receive a 30% discount on all books featured in this blog post, enter code HDPD at checkout or mention this code when calling in your order at 1-800-537-5487. Happy holidays from JHUP!

Renegade Amish: Beard Cutting, Hate Crimes, and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers Donald B. Kraybill

“Renegade Amish... provides an insider’s perspective into how a small community of Amish people, nurtured in a religious tradition of nonviolence and forgiveness, transformed into a culture of revenge and retaliation.”— Publishers Weekly

“For the dimwitted habitues of comments threads, it was the news item that launched a thousand lame puns. But the case of the Bergholz Barbers is funny only as long as it remains a sound bite. Donald B. Kraybill’s new book, Renegade Amish: Bear Cutting, Hate Crimes and the Trial of the Bergholz Barbers, digs deep into a story that, for all its seeming quaintness, has the power to both rock the underpinnings of hate crime legislation and to break the human heart.”— Laura Miller, Salon

The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Stuff That Will Blow Your Mind Don Lincoln

“Lincoln’s tales of the LHC . . . offer readers fresh insight into some of the most significant research in modern physics.”— Publishers Weekly

“Laypersons interested in the building blocks of the universe and/or the newsworthy LHC will learn a lot from this work and enjoy the process.”— Library Journal

“Physics blends with some amazing stories of the Higgs boson and other details in a powerful scientific survey packed with insights that are both scientifically detailed and widely accessible to general-interest readers.”— California Bookwatch

Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger Stephen H. Grant

“Grant provides not just a biography of the ‘onlie begetters’ of this astonishing library, but also an account of the worlds in which the Folgers lived. The result is a superlative book. . . Crisply written and packed with facts and anecdotes.”— Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“This book will fill a major gap in our understanding of how one of America’s most influential institutions came to be, and it will be welcomed by what the 1623 Folio describes as a ‘great Variety of Readers.’ c— John F. Andrews, President, The Shakespeare Guild

Washington and Baltimore Art Deco: A Design History of Neighboring Cities Richard Striner and Melissa Blair

Demonstrating how an international design movement found its way into ordinary places, this beautiful book will appeal to architectural historians, as well as regional residents interested in developing a greater appreciation of Art Deco architecture in the mid-Atlantic region.

“This is an important book.”— Richard Guy Wilson, University of Virginia

Arthur Ashe: Tennis and Justice in the Civil Rights Era Eric Allen Hall

“A strong book on an outstanding topic, it serves as a reminder that Ashe’s tragic death has to some extent eclipsed his life’s work on behalf of racial equality.”— Wall Street Journal

“A portrait of Arthur Ashe that shows the fullness of his character—his broad interests, his impressive talents, and his missteps.”— New Books in Sports

Amish Quilts:Crafting an American Icon Janneken Smucker “The gap between what artisans intend and what dealers and owners come to believe is entertainingly conveyed in this study by the textiles historian Janneken Smucker . . . The book is timely since the history of folk art collection is under scrutiny.”—New York Times

“Just as people who buy the New Yorker for its cartoons feel they’ve gotten their money’s worth without reading beyond the punch lines, readers may take this up for the pictures alone: they are sumptuous . . . [Smucker] writes appealingly and clearly, always defining quilt jargon and explaining cultural mores as she tells of the seemingly humble Amish quilts and the people who have loved them.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The Night Guard at the Wilberforce Hotel poems by Daniel Anderson

“Daniel Anderson’s fine new poems are plain spoken, and yet their outwardness turns subtly inward as we read and endows each subject with depth and discovery.”— Richard Wilbur

“The finely rendered voice in these poems is one of wisdom and vulnerability, hard–earned resolve, and steadfast wonder. Anderson’s attention—a ‘supple, taut, and silken net’—suspends between seemingly opposite and equally forceful gravities, one that belongs to ‘a dull, protracted age / Of worry, ambiguity, and doubt,’ and the other to a pure desire ‘that certain days—this one— / may never end.’ The result is transfiguring. Anderson is in firm possession of the rare ability to make ‘our exhausted, ruthless world / seem limitless once more.’ I am supremely grateful for The Night Guard at the Wilberforce Hotel.”— Claudia Emerson

Generic:The Unbranding of Modern Medicine Jeremy A. Greene

“Greene turns the concept of generic as ‘ho-hum’ on its head with this jam-packed survey of the effects culture, medicine, and politics have exerted on today's ubiquitous generic drugs for the last 50 years.”— Publishers Weekly

“Jeremy Greene’s Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine fascinates because the very meaning of the key term ‘generic’ is so unstable. Every time the reader thinks they have a handle on its dimensions, another four open up.”— Joseph Dumit, Somatosphere

Rock Star: The Making of Musical Icons from Elvis to Springsteen David R. Shumway

“[Kurt Cobain] marked something like the end point of rock stardom, the point when even actual rock stars rejected the role... Which may be fortunate, since it seems to be disappearing anyway, as Shumway argues in this smart, provocative, and emotionally charged book. I’d hate for that to be true, but in the worlds of media and culture we’re in the grips of changes as profound as any since the invention of the printing press. In that enormous context, the loss of rock stardom may seem trivial. But, as the old prerock era Gershwin song says, not for me.”— from the foreword by Anthony DeCurtis

Improving Your Memory: How to Remember What You're Starting to Forget fourth edition Janet Fogler and Lynn Stern

“The finest handbook we've seen on the subject.”— AARP Magazine

“"A good handbook on memory improvement... The best way to deal with mild memory loss is the use of memory aids and a good sense of humor.”— Creative Retirement

The Empire of the Dead Stories by Tracy Daugherty

“In this new collection, Tracy Daugherty is the maestro of middle age, and his recurrent character, Bern, is an everyman of modern times. Daugherty writes with great skill, empathy and humor of Bern's travails and longings. The Empire of the Dead is a superb book of stories that will burnish Daugherty’s already formidable reputation as a contemporary master of short fiction.”— Greg Johnson, author of Women I've Known: New and Selected Stories

Doctors Without Borders: Humanitarian Quests, Impossible Dreams of Médecins Sans Frontières Renée C. Fox

“Carefully researched and delightfully written, Doctors Without Borders establishes a new bar for those who would cover Médecins Sans Frontières in the future. This book will take its due place as one of the most comprehensive works on MSF.”— Science

“A commendably reflective work of sociology that, more importantly, tells a remarkable history of care.”— Publishers Weekly

Maryland in Black and White: Documentary Photography from the Great Depression and World War II Constance B. Schulz

“When I reflect on the grimness of the Depression and World War II, I naturally think in terms of the dramatic qualities of black and white photography. Among the images Schulz includes here, even a seemingly routine photo of a Hagerstown railroad station has a certain wonderful, almost Edward Hopperesque, quality to it.”— from the Foreword by Frederick N. Rasmussen

Publish Date: December 19, 2014

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