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Author: Ellen C. Bush

October 20, 2016

Lon Kurashige: When Buddhism Was an Enemy Religion

A few months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the FBI took my grandfather away from his wife and seven children and confined him and hundreds of other Buddhist priests apart from their families and congregations. Their main “crime” was to be leaders of an enemy religion. There was no evidence produced to implicate my grandfather or any Buddhist priest of wrongdoing. Continue Reading Lon Kurashige: When Buddhism Was an Enemy Religion

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/History/Political Science/Religion
October 3, 2016

Greta de Jong: A Lesson from Black History for Angry White Men

Trump voters are not likely to look to African American history for help in making sense of their situation or forging solutions, but if they did they might find that they have more in common with black Americans than they thought. In the mid-twentieth century, rural communities in the South—and their predominantly black labor force—experienced processes of displacement and decline that foreshadowed those that afflicted white workers in later decades. Continue Reading Greta de Jong: A Lesson from Black History for Angry White Men

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Labor Studies
September 22, 2016

Lon Kurashige: What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do?

It is important to recall Roosevelt’s positions on immigration because of the similarities between his day and our own. Immigration fears are a regular feature in today’s headlines as the United States (not mention the U.K. and European countries) wrestles with how much and in what ways to close its borders to newcomers. The same was true when Roosevelt became president. Continue Reading Lon Kurashige: What Would Teddy Roosevelt Do?

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/History/Public Policy
September 20, 2016

Lorien Foote: Adding Prisoners of War to ‘Free State of Jones’

Director Gary Ross had a fascinating and complicated story to tell, and if he had difficulty weaving the parts together for a two-hour movie, his problems would have been compounded had he tried to tell the story of the deserters in rebellion against the Confederacy in the Carolinas. Imagine Free State of Jones with nearly 3,000 escaped prisoners of war thrown into the mix. Continue Reading Lorien Foote: Adding Prisoners of War to ‘Free State of Jones’

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History
August 8, 2016

J. Michael Butler: Wendel Blackwell, Philando Castile, and the Continuing Black American Freedom Struggle

In 1969 the Pensacola NAACP’s Youth Council listed “police brutality” as one of their two primary concerns for the coming decade, and numerous incidents supported their claim into the 1970s. Continue Reading J. Michael Butler: Wendel Blackwell, Philando Castile, and the Continuing Black American Freedom Struggle

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Guest Bloggers/History
July 20, 2016

Martha S. Jones: Don’t Miss Out on What Michelle Obama Actually Said in 2008

Don’t let Melania Trump’s Monday night speech be your guide to what Michelle Obama said in 2008. Instead, keep listening. There is more to learn than who borrowed what words. Continue Reading Martha S. Jones: Don’t Miss Out on What Michelle Obama Actually Said in 2008

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Current Events/Excerpts/Guest Bloggers/History/Politics/Women's Studies
July 14, 2016

Excerpt: Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution, by Caroline Cox

Samuel Aspenwall did not say anything about his early boyhood. He began his account of his service, as did his sister Mary in her supporting deposition, with recollections of the family arguments about the lad enlisting. He said nothing about why he wanted to serve. We can imagine war news swirling around him, his family, and his town during his boyhood by reading other historical sources: local newspapers, local muster rolls that indicate that veterans were coming and going, and understanding the interactions of town life. What veterans’ anecdotes or ministers’ sermons he heard, what games played, songs sung, or books read that caused this “Strong desire,” is something difficult even to guess. Continue Reading Excerpt: Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution, by Caroline Cox

Categories American History/Excerpts/History
July 7, 2016

Video: John Shelton Reed, “That’s One Deconstructed Goat”

John Shelton Reed, author of Barbecue: a SAVOR THE SOUTH® cookbook, partnered with the Southern Cultures Center for the Study of the American South to talk about one of his favorite subjects: barbecue.

In the following video, Reed reveals the process of creating barbecued goat from start to finish Continue Reading Video: John Shelton Reed, “That’s One Deconstructed Goat”

Categories Cooking / Food/Video
June 24, 2016

4 Ways to Celebrate the Release of Free State of Jones

Today the film Free State of Jones opens in theaters across the United States. Historian Victoria E. Bynum, whose book of the same name helped inspire the film, has been making media rounds this week, talking about what the New York Times has called “the first Hollywood drama to come with footnotes.” Director Gary Ross comes correct on the history in this project, so historians, enjoy! Here are four ways you can celebrate the opening of the movie today. Continue Reading 4 Ways to Celebrate the Release of Free State of Jones

Categories African American Studies/American History/Civil War/Film/History/Video
June 15, 2016

University of Virginia Press and Cork University Press Select Longleaf Services for Fulfillment and Publishing Services

Longleaf Services is pleased to welcome the University of Virginia Press as a full-service fulfillment and publishing services client and Cork University Press as a U.S. sales, marketing, and fulfillment client. University of Virginia Press books will be available from Longleaf beginning October 1, 2016 and Cork University Press books will be available beginning January 1, 2017. Continue Reading University of Virginia Press and Cork University Press Select Longleaf Services for Fulfillment and Publishing Services

Categories UNC Press News
June 7, 2016

Longleaf Services Announces New Partnerships to Better Serve University Presses

Longleaf Services has announced strategic partnerships with Westchester Publishing Services, a trusted provider of editorial, production, and digital conversion services, and Supadü, a global leader in the design and development of websites. These partnerships further Longleaf’s mission of providing high-quality, affordable, and à la carte publishing services specifically designed for university presses. Continue Reading Longleaf Services Announces New Partnerships to Better Serve University Presses

Categories UNC Press News
May 6, 2016

Jeff Porter: The Many Lives of Orson Welles

If he were still alive, Orson Welles (1915-1985) would be 101 years old today. Welles is remembered as one of America’s most important filmmakers, but before he became famous for his movies, Welles ruled the airwaves. Continue Reading Jeff Porter: The Many Lives of Orson Welles

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Film/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Media Studies
May 4, 2016

John Shelton Reed: North Carolina Needs a New Holiday

Not only was it seven years earlier than the Tea Party, its story is much more colorful. While the Tea Party offers only a pitiful attempt to avoid the blame by dressing up as Mohawk Indians, the Barbecue story involves a stand-off between the local militia and the British Navy, a conflict between the Governor and the courts, a duel to the death, and a suicide by disembowelment. Continue Reading John Shelton Reed: North Carolina Needs a New Holiday

Categories American History/Cooking / Food/History/North Carolina
April 28, 2016

LaKisha Michelle Simmons: Landscapes, Memories, and History in Beyoncé’s Lemonade

Some writers have noted the presence of the “southern gothic” or the “southern porch” in Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s visceral visual album Lemonade. But the landscapes are unambiguously part of the geography of Louisiana; the visual album is haunting because of its specificity to place. Barely visible, in the discussion thus far, is the history of slavery—and its remnants—all over the landscape of the album. Continue Reading LaKisha Michelle Simmons: Landscapes, Memories, and History in Beyoncé’s Lemonade

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Media Studies/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
April 27, 2016

Benjamin René Jordan: “Free-Range Kids” and the Problem of Children’s Citizenship

Fisher warned that allowing young men to “stumble into citizenship,” assuming it only begins at age twenty-one, leads them to believe that civic responsibility is primarily limited to voting or paying taxes: “A boy cannot live his boy life entirely separate from any sense of responsibility to society and then be expected as a man to live a full-orbed citizenship.” Fisher’s statement suggests that our current social and educational structure in which adolescents are isolated from broader community interactions, mature responsibilities, and opportunities for personal growth endangers the very foundation of America’s democratic society by restricting young people’s awareness of the broader community and experience of citizenship. Continue Reading Benjamin René Jordan: “Free-Range Kids” and the Problem of Children’s Citizenship

Categories American Studies/Gender Studies
April 13, 2016

Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez: Muslims in the Classroom

Donald Trump’s suggested ban on Muslims entering the United States and the creation of a Muslim “registry” has been widely (and wisely) condemned. But from my perspective in the classroom, I see how the ideas are already affecting young people. Amid the rows of Catholics, Jews, agnostics, and evangelicals in my religion courses sit dozens of students hailing from the Middle East and South Asia. Their presence is a very good thing. Like most of my students, they are open, curious, and eager to learn. And they are baffled and intimidated by Trump’s rhetoric. Continue Reading Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez: Muslims in the Classroom

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Education/Guest Bloggers/Religion