Category: Labor Studies

Nontraditional Career, Unconventional History

The following is a guest post by Aimee Loiselle, author of Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class, which tells a history of women industrial workers in struggles over working conditions and pop culture in the late-twentieth century. Beyond Norma Rae is now available wherever books are sold. The successful publication… Continue Reading Nontraditional Career, Unconventional History

Movies Are Not Mirrors

The following is a guest post by Aimee Loiselle, author of Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class, which tells a history of women industrial workers in struggles over working conditions and pop culture in the late-twentieth century. Beyond Norma Rae is now available wherever books are sold.… Continue Reading Movies Are Not Mirrors

New Books This Week

It’s Tuesday which means we have new books that are officially on-sale wherever books are sold! You can also see our list of everything new this month on our Hot Off the Press page and you can sign up for our monthly eNews to get updates in your inbox about new books, news, promotions and more. Boardinghouse Women: How Southern Keepers, Cooks, Nurses,… Continue Reading New Books This Week

Racial and Sexual Exclusion in World War II–Era Military and Veterans’ Policy: An excerpt from “Ambivalent Affinities”

The following is an excerpt of Ambivalent Affinities: A Political History of Blackness and Homosexuality after World War II by Jennifer Dominique Jones, which is available now wherever books are sold. In a January 31, 1942, letter to the Pittsburgh Courier, twenty-six-year-old James G. Thompson queried, “Should I sacrifice my life to live half [an]American? Would it be demanding too much to demand… Continue Reading Racial and Sexual Exclusion in World War II–Era Military and Veterans’ Policy: An excerpt from “Ambivalent Affinities”

Magic Tricks: An Excerpt from “Living Queer History”

The following is an excerpt from Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City by Gregory Samantha Rosenthal. Living Queer History tells the story of an LGBTQ community in Roanoke, Virginia, a small city on the edge of Appalachia. Interweaving  historical analysis, theory, and memoir, Gregory Samantha Rosenthal tells the story of their own journey—coming out and transitioning as… Continue Reading Magic Tricks: An Excerpt from “Living Queer History”

Queer History is Southern History; Queer Women are Southern Women

The following is a guest post by La Shonda Mims, author of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South, which is available now everywhere books are sold. When I first conceived of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists, I knew that I wanted to address the lack of queer people in southern US histories and the lack of… Continue Reading Queer History is Southern History; Queer Women are Southern Women

The Strikers of Coachella: Read the Intro

The following is an excerpt of The Strikers of Coachella: A Rank-and-File History of the UFW Movement by Christian O. Paiz, available wherever books are sold. In a Small Place In the summer of 1969, the United Farm Workers (UFW) newspaper, El Malcriado, published an eight-photo spread titled “The Strikers of Coachella”: two of Mexican women, two of Filipino men, and… Continue Reading The Strikers of Coachella: Read the Intro

2022 Southern Labor Studies Association Conference

UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at the Southern Labor Studies Association Conference! We hope you’ll stop by our table to say hello to editors Andrew Winters & Lucas Church and to browse our titles on display. If you can’t join us in-person, you can always stop by our virtual booth! Stop by our virtual booth to browse… Continue Reading 2022 Southern Labor Studies Association Conference

The Gendered Anatomy of “Negro Crime”

The following is an excerpt from Talitha L. LeFlouria’s Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South. In 1868, the state of Georgia began to make its rapidly growing population of prisoners available for hire. The resulting convict leasing system ensnared not only men but also African American women, who were forced to labor in camps… Continue Reading The Gendered Anatomy of “Negro Crime”

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Susan Garrett, our Sales Manager. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any of these books,… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Race and Class Identities in Early American Department Stores

The following is an excerpt form Traci Parker’s Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement: Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1980s. In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation. Built… Continue Reading Race and Class Identities in Early American Department Stores

Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black American Experience

Earlier this month, we published the first of our weekly Black History Month reading lists, focused on Black Resistance. This week’s reading list centers the Black American experience and it consists of books written by black authors who touch on a few of the various and infinite lived occurrences we share as Black people in America. We are not a… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: The Black American Experience

2022 Modern Language Association Annual Meeting

We hope you’ll visit our Modern Language Association virtual booth to browse our new and recent titles and connect with editor Lucas Church. “Hopefully, this will be the last year we can’t meet in-person, but I want to welcome proposal from all writers who are working at the intersection of Black and literary studies. American studies-inflected methodologies are also welcome,… Continue Reading 2022 Modern Language Association Annual Meeting

2022 American Historical Association Annual Meeting

Due to continued concerns surrounding travel and the coronavirus, UNC Press has decided to no longer exhibit in-person at AHA 2022. While we are disappointed to miss this opportunity to see you all at our booth, we hope you’ll take the time to visit our virtual booth. And we hope to see you at AHA 2023! At our virtual booth… Continue Reading 2022 American Historical Association Annual Meeting

Steel Closets: Setting The Scene

The following is an excerpt from Anne Balay’s Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers. Even as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender… Continue Reading Steel Closets: Setting The Scene

Civil Rights Unionism: Those Who Were Not Afraid

The following is an excerpt from Robert R. Korstad’s Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South. Drawing on scores of interviews with black and white tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Robert Korstad brings to life the forgotten heroes of Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO. These… Continue Reading Civil Rights Unionism: Those Who Were Not Afraid

Universal Human Rights Month: A Recommended Reading List

Nobody’s free until everybody’s free. Fannie Lou Hamer December marks the annual celebration of Universal Human Rights Month. The observance of this month began in 1948 when the U.N. wrote a document called The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document was created after World War II and was used to “properly define what human rights would be protected universally”.… Continue Reading Universal Human Rights Month: A Recommended Reading List

New and Recently Released UNC Press Audiobooks

We are pleased to announce the availability of the following UNC Press titles in audiobook format (sample audio excerpts are available via the links below): Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State by Garrett Felber, published by Tantor Media Felber . . . examines how the Nation of Islam, and… Continue Reading New and Recently Released UNC Press Audiobooks

2021 Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

Visit our virtual booth for the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting. You can browse our new and recent titles, connect with editor Elaine Maisner, and learn more about our Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series. New Titles in Middle East Studies Afropolitan Projects: Redefining Blackness, Sexualities, and Culture from Houston to Accra Anima Adjepong Planetary Specters: Race, Migration, and… Continue Reading 2021 Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting

Three UNC Press titles win American Historical Association 2021 Prizes!

Congratulations to these UNC Press titles who were American Historical Association 2021 Prize Winners! The AHA offers annual prizes honoring exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Since 1896, the Association has conferred over 1,000 awards. This year’s finalists were selected from a field of over 1,400 entries by nearly 150 dedicated… Continue Reading Three UNC Press titles win American Historical Association 2021 Prizes!