Category: Religion

I Thought Liberation Would Be a Happy Story

The following is an excerpt from Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust by Robin Judd, which is available wherever books are sold. “A fresh perspective on the aftermath of trauma . . . . Drawing on rich archival sources, historian Judd makes her book debut with a sensitive, well-researched history of marriages between survivors of the Holocaust… Continue Reading I Thought Liberation Would Be a Happy Story

2023 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting! We hope you’ll stop by our booth (#622) to say hello to editor Mark Simpson-Vos and to browse our new titles on display. If you can’t join us in-person, you can always visit our virtual booth! And be sure to check out these great… Continue Reading 2023 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

New This Week

Another week, another list of new books! Check out these new books that are now available wherever books are sold. Plus see everything new this month on our Hot Off the Press page. You can also sign up for our monthly eNews so you can get updates on new releases and news on what’s happening at UNC Press. Southern Lights: 75 Years of the… Continue Reading New This Week

Crime Meets Punishment: An Excerpt from “Convicting the Mormons”

The following is an excerpt from Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture by Janiece Johnson which is available wherever books are sold. This book is fantastic! Elizabeth Fenton, University of Vermont Johnson’s authorial voice and absolute command of the primary sources make this book an indispensable resource for historians examining the aftermath and American cultural perception… Continue Reading Crime Meets Punishment: An Excerpt from “Convicting the Mormons”

The Gods Give Looks: An Excerpt from Vodou en Vogue

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States by Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha which is available wherever books are sold. “Nwokocha’s superb work offers a much-needed corrective to previous scholarship that presents Vodou as a religion defined by poverty and precarity. Her skillful observations and thoughtful descriptions of… Continue Reading The Gods Give Looks: An Excerpt from Vodou en Vogue

Faith in Democracy: An Excerpt from “Public Confessions”

The following is an excerpt from Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics by Rebecca L. Davis, now available in paperback wherever books are sold. “A sterling history of mid-20th-century religious conversions and the social issues surrounding them. . . . This impressive work captures a fraught period in American political and religious history with a clear eye… Continue Reading Faith in Democracy: An Excerpt from “Public Confessions”

The Contexts of Faith-Based Community Organizing an excerpt from “Making Moral Citizens”

The following is an excerpt from Making Moral Citizens: How Faith-Based Organizers Use Vocation for Public Action by Jack Delehanty, which is available now wherever books are sold. The Contexts of Faith-Based Community Organizing The streets were full of police as I walked south through Philadelphia toward Center City. With the pope due to arrive in town later that day,… Continue Reading The Contexts of Faith-Based Community Organizing an excerpt from “Making Moral Citizens”

Circulating Specters: An Excerpt from “Seeing Things”

The following is an excerpt from Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism by Mason Kamana Allred which is available wherever books are sold. Allred articulates in this ambitious entry some fascinating connections between Latter-day Saint theology, technology, and identity formation . . . . Deeply conversant in critical theory, the author establishes inventive arguments supported by… Continue Reading Circulating Specters: An Excerpt from “Seeing Things”

New This Month: March

We’re kicking off our Spring/Summer 2023 season with a stellar line up of new titles! Browse this list to see new books publishing this month, and you can find the full list, including a bunch of new in paperbacks here. The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women: Stories of Landscape and Community in the Mountain South edited by Kami Ahrens “These… Continue Reading New This Month: March

The Oil Issue in Iran

The following is an excerpt from The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951–1954, by David S. Painter and Gregory Brew, available wherever books are sold. Beginning with the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in spring 1951 and ending with its reversal following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in August 1953, the Iranian oil crisis… Continue Reading The Oil Issue in Iran

Anthea Butler Wins 2022 Martin E. Marty Award

UNC Press offers our sincere congratulations to Anthea Butler on being awarded the 2022 Martin E. Marty award for the Public Understanding of Religion! Each year, the American Academy of Religion(AAR) presents this award to an individual whose work helped advance the public understanding of religion. This year, the AAR named Anthea Butler this years Marty Award Winner, making her the… Continue Reading Anthea Butler Wins 2022 Martin E. Marty Award

2022 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

UNC Press is excited to once again be exhibiting in-person at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting! We hope you’ll stop by booth 530 to say hello to editor Mark Simpson-Vos, to learn more about our Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks and Where Religion Lives Series, and to browse our religious studies titles on display. If you can’t join… Continue Reading 2022 American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting

Global Christianity and the Cold War

The following is an excerpt from Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire edited by John Corrigan, Melani McAlister, Axel R. Schäfer. Global Christianity and the Cold War The military and economic footprint of the U.S. abroad expanded rapidly after World War II. The growth of evangelical mission and humanitarian aid activities needs to be viewed in this context. The… Continue Reading Global Christianity and the Cold War

The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports

The following is an excerpt from Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America by Randall Balmer, available everywhere books and e-books are sold. To Everything a Season The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports Competitive team sports developed in North America at a time of rapid social, economic, political, demographic—and religious—change. From the emergence of baseball in the 1840s to… Continue Reading The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports

2026 and Religion: A Conversation with Katherine Carté

Thanks to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture for allowing us to reblog the following Q&A with Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, that originally appeared on their blog, Uncommon Sense. This is the first in a planned series of conversations with Omohundro Institute authors about how their work relates to the American… Continue Reading 2026 and Religion: A Conversation with Katherine Carté

Anne Skorecki Levy, Subject of “Troubled Memory,” Receives Honorary Doctorate

Anne Skorecki Levy, whose story of survival and fight against anti-semitism, racism, and religious persecution is told in Troubled Memory: Anne Levy, the Holocaust, and David Duke’s Louisiana by Lawrence N. Powell, is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Loyola University New Orleans. The doctorate citation reads: “educator, humanitarian and truth-teller.” Praise for the award winning and critically acclaimed… Continue Reading Anne Skorecki Levy, Subject of “Troubled Memory,” Receives Honorary Doctorate

In Memoriam: Eli Evans

We are saddened to learn that Eli N. Evans, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, alumnus of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Yale Law School, and author of The Provincials: A Personal History of the Jewish South, died on July 26th at 85 years of age. Pat Conroy proclaimed The Provincials “the seminal indispensable book about… Continue Reading In Memoriam: Eli Evans

“Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life” Selected for NCH’s 2022 NC Reads Book Club

Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life by Troy R. Saxby has been selected for North Carolina Reads, the North Carolina Humanities statewide book club for 2022 that features five books that explore issues of racial, social, and gender equality and the history and culture of the state. “All five books pose critical questions about how North Carolinians view their role in helping… Continue Reading “Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life” Selected for NCH’s 2022 NC Reads Book Club

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Ann Bingham)

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 our Exhibits and Awards Manager Ann Bingham. 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… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Ann Bingham)

New Editorial Roles for Mark Simpson-Vos and Debbie Gershenowitz

As UNC Press launches its new acquisitions strategy in its centennial year, effective April 1, 2022, two senior members of the Press’s editorial team are taking on new roles to align oversight of key lists with the Press’s strategic priorities. Editorial Director Mark Simpson-Vos will substantially shift his focus, taking over responsibility for the Press’s prestigious list of general-interest and… Continue Reading New Editorial Roles for Mark Simpson-Vos and Debbie Gershenowitz