New This Week: October 14th

It’s Tuesday which means new UNC Press books are hitting the shelves! Keep reading to learn more about the four new titles that are now available wherever books are sold or view everything new this month on our Hot Off the Press page.

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The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War by Renata Keller

InterConnections: The Global Twentieth Century Series

The first hemispheric history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

“Despite all the many books (and movies) about the singular event we call the Cuban Missile Crisis, no one has told that history as a hemispheric one—until now. Keller’s brilliant book eschews a bilateral approach focused on the two superpowers and even a trilateral one that encompasses Cuba. This gripping and rigorously researched book will forever change the way readers understand the missile crisis and the Cold War.”—Ada Ferrer, author of Cuba: An American History

“Everyone concerned about international relations should read this book.”—Alan McPherson, author of The Breach: Iran-Contra and the Assault on American Democracy

AIDS in the Heartland: How Unlikely Coalitions Created a Blueprint for LGBTQ Politics by Katie Batza

The untold histories of AIDS in the Midwest.

“Essential reading in HIV/AIDS and queer history. An important, innovative, and engaging contribution.”—Emily K. Hobson, author of Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left

“Katie Batza’s groundbreaking history of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the American heartland will reshape how we talk about AIDS in the United States. We need this book!”—Anthony M. Petro, author of After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion

For a Spell: Sissie Collectivism and Radical Witchery in the Southeast by Jason Ezell

Gender and American Culture Series

Southeast sissies dreaming up radical, magical, nonbinary worlds.

“An enlightening . . . history of radical queer communal groups across the Southeastern U.S. in the 1970s and their adoption of feminist witchcraft practice. . . . [A]n eye-opening revelation of the fairly extensive reach—including widely circulated newsletters and regional conferences—of a little remembered network of rural queer communes.”—Publishers Weekly

“A passionate life’s work on queer countercultural organizing, joy, and pain in the US Southeast.”—La Shonda Mims, author of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South

Russian Literary Journals, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy in St. Petersburg, 1877 by Linda M. Mayhew

Reacting to the Past

This game, set in St. Petersburg, immerses students into the vibrant and combative world of Russian literary journals. Students assume the roles of editors, writers, and social activists navigating the complex intersection of literature and politics. The periodicals they produce are filled with subtle political commentaries regarding the monarchy, education, religion, and women in society, all designed to slip past the censors. As writers such as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy compete to publish their work, they must align with intellectual factions—Populists, Slavophiles, or Westernizers—and find allies to advance their literary and political ambitions. Editors face the dual challenges of maintaining their publication goals and appeasing the censors, deciding which articles and novels make it to print.

In this game, writers present their work at Elena Shtakenshneider’s literary salon, sparking discussions on themes such as the relationship of art to society, women’s roles, access to education, the Russian Orthodox Church, and paths to political reform. In this charged environment, the success of a journal can determine its influence on Russia’s future. The editor of a thriving journal may even earn an audience with Tsar Alexander II, with the opportunity to advocate for a constitutional monarchy, endorse the existing autocratic structures, or propose sweeping political and social changes.