Trending This Month: March

See what’s trending at UNC Press with this reading list of the most viewed books on our website this month.

Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South by Barbara Krauthamer

Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.”—Choice

“An important overview of the lives of African and African American peoples who played relevant, active roles in United States affairs, adeptly navigated tribal and United States federal bureaucracy, and effectively articulated their views on race and identity.”—Ohio Valley History

“In this compelling study Krauthamer successfully demonstrates black Americans’ struggle for their liberation and subsequent rights as citizens.”—Southern Historian

I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said’s America by Mbaye Lo , Carl W. Ernst ( August 2023)

Omar ibn Said (1770–1863) was a Muslim scholar from West Africa who spent more than fifty years enslaved in the North Carolina household of James Owen, brother of Governor John Owen. Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst here weave fresh and accurate translations of Omar’s eighteen surviving writings, for the first time identifying his quotations from Islamic theological texts, correcting many distortions, and providing the fullest possible account of his life and significance. Placing Omar at the center of a broader network of the era’s literary and religious thought, Lo and Ernst restore Omar’s voice, his sophisticated engagement with Islamic and Christian theologies, his Arabic skills, and his extraordinary efforts to express himself and exert agency despite his enslavement.

Tales From the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era by Tiya Miles

“Imagery portrayed within each story . . . will keep readers on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the next sentence, waiting to hear how each narrative plays out.”—Choice

“Shines a valuable light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and on how the ghosts of the past are still with us.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“A page-turner. . . . Should serve as a call to historic sites to undertake the hard work of telling complex stories about the past that enable visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of African American lives under slavery.”—Journal of Southern History

A New History of the American South edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage , Laura F. Edwards , Jon F. Sensbach (May 2023)

“An important book for anyone interested in Southern history . . . . the book’s contributors brilliantly integrate the contents of their separate chapters, each on a distinct era, into a taut, analytical narrative. Throughout, their voices and styles cohere in striking fashion . . . . to learn of the South’s past as it is viewed today by leading historians, this is the book to read.”—Kirkus Reviews(STARRED review)