New Books This Week

It’s Tuesday and you know what that means: new books! Check out these three new books publishing today or you can see everything new this month on our Hot Off the Press page. Plus, if you want updates in your inbox every month on new titles and what’s happening at UNC Press, you can sign up for our monthly eNews here.

Wondrous Transformations: A Maverick Physician, the Science of Hormones, and the Birth of the Transgender Revolution by Alison Li

“I’ve been hoping for a long time that somebody would write this book. Alison Li has produced a highly readable, authoritatively researched biography of Harry Benjamin, whose contributions to transgender medicine are not as widely known as they should be. A much-needed corrective.”—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History

“With Wondrous Transformations, Alison Li has written a compelling and eminently readable biography that is at the same time magisterial in the scope and depth of its research. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of science, medicine, or trans iterations of the same.”—Jules Gill-Peterson, author of Histories of the Transgender Child

Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm by Loka Ashwood, Aimee Imlay, Lindsay Kuehn, Allen Franco, Danielle Diamond

“Empty Fields, Empty Promises challenges the popular notion that right-to-farm’ laws benefit family-sized farming operations and protect their livelihoods. This innovative and thoughtful book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the efficacy of these laws and the impact they have on rural communities and family-sized farming operations.”—Susan Schneider, University of Arkansas

“While there is a dearth of material on agricultural law in general, no book tackles the complexities of right-to-farm laws in as much detail as this book. The authors provide a thorough analysis of the laws themselves and the intent behind them, as well as how these laws contribute to a variety of larger political projects. An essential contribution.”—Rick Welsh, Syracuse University

The Prado Museum Expansion: The Diverse Art of Latin America by By Bridget V. Franco

A Reacting to the Past game book

From 2001 to 2007, the world-renowned Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, underwent an ambitious expansion project that reorganized the spatial design of the museum and allowed for additional exhibition space. Coinciding with the completion of this large construction project were a series of celebrations surrounding the 2010 bicentenary of South American independence movements, a clear reminder of the complicated relationship between Spain and its former colonies in Latin America. Inspired by this significant historical moment and with an eye to diversifying its predominantly Spanish-centered permanent collection, the Prado Museum decides to host a competition for a new gallery of Latin American art. 

The game begins in 2010 as students, assuming the roles of curators, art patrons, living artists, and art dealers, set into motion a series of negotiation sessions that will help the museum decide which artworks to choose for the new gallery. Students will analyze a broad range of artistic movements and styles related to Latin American art from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries, in an effort to support the acquisition of paintings that best represent the diverse artistic legacies and historical heritage of the region.