Author: Ellen C. Bush

Introducing The Journal of the Civil War Era: Call for Papers

Manuscripts are being solicited for a new peer-review journal that incorporates a broad view of the Civil War era. Published in collaboration with The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University, The Journal of the Civil War Era will launch its inaugural issue in March 2011. William… Continue Reading Introducing The Journal of the Civil War Era: Call for Papers

American History/Civil War/UNC Press News

Obama’s Nuclear Initiatives: Neither “Sufficient” Nor “Bold”

From Shane J. Maddock, author of Nuclear Apartheid: The Quest for American Atomic Supremacy from World War II to the Present, we welcome this guest post addressing Barack Obama’s most recent nuclear initiatives. If you missed Maddock’s January guest post, “The Delicate Art of Nuclear Jujutsu,” go back and take a look.–ellen President Barack Obama renewed the U.S. commitment to… Continue Reading Obama’s Nuclear Initiatives: Neither “Sufficient” Nor “Bold”

Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Military Studies/Politics/Public Policy/UNC Press Authors

Today’s Segregated Schools

A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced. (read the whole story here) When I saw the story yesterday headlined “Miss. county schools ordered to comply with… Continue Reading Today’s Segregated Schools

African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Current Events/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Law / Legal History/Public Policy

Why Are Children Killing Children in New Orleans?

We published Lance Hill’s book The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement several years ago, but we’ve stayed in touch with him, eager to hear his reports from New Orleans through Katrina and after. As an activist and civil rights historian, he brings a valuable perspective to local politics and educational issues of a city still… Continue Reading Why Are Children Killing Children in New Orleans?

African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Current Events/Guest Bloggers

‘Change Comes Knocking’ to air on WUNC-TV tonight

Tonight at 10 p.m. on WUNC-TV will be the broadcast premiere of the documentary film Change Comes Knocking: The Story of the NC Fund. The film explores a bold, biracial initiative to fight poverty in 1960s North Carolina. The anti-poverty project known as the North Carolina Fund is also the subject of a new book by Robert Korstad and James… Continue Reading ‘Change Comes Knocking’ to air on WUNC-TV tonight

African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Film/North Carolina/Public Policy/UNC Press News

SALE: 400+ books now discounted 50%

If you follow us on the twitter or the facebook or the email, then you already know about our huge spring sale! Hundreds of books in all kinds of subjects–gardening, Civil War, African American history, classics, cooking, religion, women’s studies, and more–are currently half price. Sale ends May 1, so get shopping! Happy spring- ellen

UNC Press News

New Malinda Maynor Lowery Post at First Peoples

Monday, the New York Times ran a story about Native American language resuscitation occurring at Stony Brook University, where scholars are trying to revive the Shinnecock and Unkechaug languages of two of the Indian tribes that called Long Island home in the past. The process is proving to be difficult–few written examples of the language exist, and the same goes… Continue Reading New Malinda Maynor Lowery Post at First Peoples

Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

Before You Arrest Us, Would You Care to Buy a Book?!

UNC Press recently partnered with the Kenan-Flagler Business School to combine bookselling and leadership training for a group of MBA students. We were delighted by the students’ approaches to the challenge, and of course were thrilled to have a hardcore two-day sales team. One of the participants, Anthony Lewis, describes his experiences in this fantastic guest post. Thanks to Kenan-Flagler… Continue Reading Before You Arrest Us, Would You Care to Buy a Book?!

Business/Guest Bloggers/North Carolina/Sports/The Book Biz/UNC Press News

Improving the Health of North Carolinians, Then and Now

Today we welcome a guest post from William W. McLendon, M.D., coauthor, with Floyd W. Denny Jr. and William B. Blythe, of Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement. The book explores the history of North Carolina’s postwar effort to provide health care for all N.C.… Continue Reading Improving the Health of North Carolinians, Then and Now

American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/North Carolina/Public Policy

Up to Date in Kansas City

We welcome a guest post today from Joshua M. Dunn, author of Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins. Dunn’s book explores the 1987 case that became the federal court’s most expensive attempt at school desegregation: Judge Russell Clark mandated tax increases to help pay for improvements to the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in an effort to lure… Continue Reading Up to Date in Kansas City

African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Current Events/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Law / Legal History

The legacy of North Carolina’s eugenics program

The cover story for this week’s Independent Weekly (on newsstands in the Triangle from 3/24/10 to 3/30/10), discusses the victims of North Carolina’s 20th-century eugenics program and the current campaign for reparations to people (mostly poor black women) who were forcibly sterilized. As of March 1, 2010, the state has established an organization to finally bring justice for surviving victims.… Continue Reading The legacy of North Carolina’s eugenics program

African American History/American History/Civil Rights/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/History/North Carolina/Public Policy/Women's Studies

Reality Radio: the song!

Over the last few decades, the radio documentary has developed into a strikingly vibrant form of creative expression. Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound celebrates today’s best audio documentary work by bringing together some of the most influential and innovative practitioners from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia. In these 19 essays, documentary artists tell relate how they… Continue Reading Reality Radio: the song!

Interviews/Media Studies/Music/Podcasts/UNC Press Authors

William Bauer on writing American Indian history from home

William J. Bauer Jr. (Wailacki and Concow, and an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes) is author of the new book We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here: Work, Community, and Memory on California’s Round Valley Reservation, 1850-1941. The federally recognized Round Valley Indian Tribes are a small, confederated people whose members today come from twelve indigenous California… Continue Reading William Bauer on writing American Indian history from home

American History/History/Labor Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors

Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

Today we celebrate the birthday of Lillian Wald (1867-1940), founder of Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side as well as the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Wald was a second-generation German Jewish immigrant who developed close associations with Jewish New York even as she consistently dismissed claims that her work emerged from a fundamentally Jewish calling.… Continue Reading Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

American History/Biography / Autobiography/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies

Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

We love it when new UNC Press books seem to be in conversation with other books of the moment. Take Patti Smith’s acclaimed new memoir, Just Kids (HarperCollins 2010), which offers an inside look at the punk pioneer’s artistic influences and collaborations, including Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Shepard, and Fred “Sonic” Smith–all men. However, right there on… Continue Reading Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Interviews/Music/UNC Press News/Women's Studies

Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

Have you heard? Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has sponsored a bill to replace U.S. Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan. In an op-ed for the LA Times, Grant biographer Joan Waugh offers a brief history lesson in defense of the Union general and 18th President of the United States and cautions against further erosion of Grant’s legacy. An… Continue Reading Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/Current Events/History/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News

What’s Cooking? Karen Barker’s Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads!

Elaine Maisner is a senior editor at UNC Press. Over a recent winter break, she asked her daughter, Zina—a wonderful baker—to make Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads, from Sweet Stuff: Karen Barker’s American Desserts. Here’s their step-by-step guide to making these delicious cookies.–ellen I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Zina making these cookies, especially to show people… Continue Reading What’s Cooking? Karen Barker’s Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads!

Cooking / Food/Recipes

Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

We welcome a guest post today from S. Scott Rohrer, author of Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865. Popular literature and frontier studies stress that Americans moved west to farm or to seek a new beginning. In Wandering Souls, Rohrer argues that Protestant migrants in early America relocated in search of salvation, Christian community, reform, or all three. In… Continue Reading Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

American History/Genealogy/Guest Bloggers/Religion/UNC Press Authors

February 22, 2010

How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

This is the question Susan Reverby considers in a post over at Wonders & Marvels. The author of, most recently, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy writes: In my most recent book, I had to explain: why did the doctors do it? Sometimes it is easy to answer this: all the men were black and poor, and… Continue Reading How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

African American Studies/American History/Health / Medicine/History/UNC Press Authors

February 18, 2010

Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Early 1861 marked the only time in our nation’s history that it had two presidents, both calling for a return to the republic born in the American Revolution. On February 18, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America; on March 4, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States of… Continue Reading Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

American History/Civil War/UNC Press News