American Philosophical Society Press

16/07/2025

In the Milken Review, APS Press author Edward Tenner talks AI: "After scanning an encyclopedia yearbook article I had written to be included in a collection of my essays, I found many extraneous hyphens, captions and running heads. Surely, I thought, a site trained on a vast corpus of texts (including, according to one site, pirated versions of my own books) would clean up the text in a flash. It was an abject failure even in obvious cases."

Edward Tenner 's latest book, Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge, (which is just as entertaining and informative as this recent review) is available to order from your local bookstore and online: https://www.pennpress.org/9781606180273/why-the-hindenburg-had-a-smoking-lounge/

AJ Pics/Alamy Stock Photo Dude, Where's My Singularity The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge With AI by ray kurzweil reviewed by edward tenner *Copyright Ray Kurzweil (2025). All rights reserved. edward tenner is a research affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and Rutgers University. A volume...

08/07/2025

Today on arcmag.org: Mark Oppenheimer discusses campus politics with author Neil L. Rudenstine.

Buy Our Contentious Universities by Neil L. Rudenstine here: https://www.pennpress.org/9781606180075/our-contentious-universities/

Neil Rudenstine was born in 1935 and grew up in Danbury, Connecticut. His father was a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who became a prison guard; his mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants. He attended Princeton, became a scholar of Renaissance literature, and served as president of Harvard Univer...

08/07/2025

Neil L. Rudenstine 's account of the aftermath of the Barnes Foundation's move to Philadelphia is described as "meticulously documented" in the July 24, 2025 issue of The New York Review of Books.

Not a New York Review of Books subscriber? Free Library of Philadelphia cardholders enjoy free access using Libby App. Those outside of Philly can check with their own local libraries.

Buy your copy of The House of Barnes by Neil L. Rudenstine here: https://www.pennpress.org/9781606188897/the-house-of-barnes/

Even as he assembled a world-class art collection, Albert C. Barnes always saw himself as an embattled underdog.

08/07/2025

New issue of Proceedings out now! Volume 166 Number 1 contains a breadth of content ranging from field reports and biographical memoirs to essays on autobiography and Richard Price. Don't miss a revisited article on Satan as the hero of Paradise Lost by John M. Steadman, that first appeared in the journal in 1976.

Access on Project MUSE : https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/869

The issue is pictured here in Franklin Court in Philadelphia, where Ben Franklin once lived.

30/06/2025

"Mr. Conn's book will be a useful guide to anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of the Liberty Bell during the semiquincentennial."

Read D.G. Hart's The Wall Street Journal review of Thomas Sully's Philadelphians by Peter Conn at the link.

American Philosophical Society

The English-born painter depicted leaders of what was then the nation’s cultural capital.

30/06/2025

Portraits of a city. Thomas Sully’s Philadelphians.

17/06/2025

Out now! Philadelphia, the Revolutionary City, a catalog accompanying the American Philosophical Society Museum exhibition of the same title, explores the lived experiences of Philadelphians leading up to, during, and after the fight for independence.

Visit the APS Museum or the link below to buy your copy.
https://www.pennpress.org/9781606181225/philadelphia-the-revolutionary-city/

Learn more about visiting the APS Museum at the link below. Admission is free!
https://www.amphilsoc.org/visit-museum

12/06/2025

We love local authors! We were lucky to have 10 amazing Philadelphia authors at the APS last night, sharing their work in 5 minutes or less.

Thank you to all our guests, Head House Books, and the authors:

Darrow Farr
Judith Giesberg
Tre Johnson
Ken Kalfus
Beth Kephart
Sophie Lewis
Kristen Martin
Jim Murphy
M. L. Rio
C.J. Spataro

If you would like to receive emails about future publishing salons, please DM us with your email address.

04/06/2025

New issue of Transactions out now! Volume 114 Number 2 revisits a 1939 symposium hosted by the APS on the totalitarian state. The foreword, written by APS Member Rogers Smith, is free to read for the time being on Project MUSE--don't miss out!

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/journal/868

The journal is pictured here in front of the totalitarianism panel of the Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial Plaza.

04/06/2025

Today on Tap into Princeton, Richard K. Rein describes author Edward Tenner as "a bear of a researcher and a thoroughbred writer."

Catch Ed tonight (June 4th) at 7:00 p m. at the Princeton Public Library. Details here: https://princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/13683416

Princeton, NJ – If we had to use animals to describe the Princeton-based author, Edward Tenner, we might say that he is a bear of researcher and a thoroughbred writer. The bear, roaming from topic...

03/06/2025

On this day in 1769, David Rittenhouse observed the transit of Venus. This astronomical event was later described in words and diagrams in the first issue of Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, a journal we still publish to this day.