Author: Ellen C. Bush

SIBA book award finalists include Holy Smoke & biography of Susie Sharp

The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is narrowing in on the year’s best southern books. Here’s how they describe the process: Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite hand-sell books of the year. These are the Southern books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn’t stop talking about; the ones most… Continue Reading SIBA book award finalists include Holy Smoke & biography of Susie Sharp

Upcoming events 4/14 – 4/20

Upcoming author events, including a C-SPAN taping tonight! Today, Tuesday, 4/14: John & Dale Reed in Kernersville, NC –  Shakespeare & Company Books in Kernersville hosts the authors of Holy Smoke at 6 pm. Lars Schoultz in Durham, NC – The author of That Infernal Little Cuban Republic will read and speak at the Regulator Bookshop at 7 pm .… Continue Reading Upcoming events 4/14 – 4/20

Upcoming events: UNC wins NCAA championship, etc.

The Tar Heels are on order by the Commander in Chief to win the NCAA tourney tonight. Go Heels!! Here’s a preview of tonight’s celebration on Franklin Street. This video was shot on Saturday, when the Tar Heels beat Villanova in the final four. Hopefully any potential thunderstorms and tornadoes will happen sooner rather than later today so we can… Continue Reading Upcoming events: UNC wins NCAA championship, etc.

Job Programs and Stimulus II: What We Can Learn from New Deal Programs

I’m pleased to have a guest post today from Frank Stricker, author of Why America Lost the War on Poverty — And How to Win It, which we published in 2007. That book focused on the second half of the twentieth century. In his current work, Stricker’s looking more closely at unemployment and job creation, and looking further back in… Continue Reading Job Programs and Stimulus II: What We Can Learn from New Deal Programs

In memoriam, Archie Green (1917-2009)

I wrote briefly last week (in rather vague terms) about some of Archie Green’s accomplishments. Over the weekend, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times both published lengthy obituaries. I wanted to offer a more personal glimpse of him here from a longtime friend and colleague of Green’s, Robert Cantwell. In 2001 UNC Press published Green’s collection Torching the… Continue Reading In memoriam, Archie Green (1917-2009)

Grandfather Mountain: personal and public

Yesterday Governor Bev Perdue signed legislation making Grandfather Mountain North Carolina’s newest state park. Hugh Morton (1921-2006) inherited the 2500-acre property and developed part of it into a tourist attraction, including a famous “mile-high” swinging bridge. Morton’s family will continue to operate the tourist site and nature center there. My family vacations as a child were often in the mountains… Continue Reading Grandfather Mountain: personal and public

Robert McElvaine on The News Hour: reconsidering consumption

I’ve posted a couple of items recently (here and here) about the renewed relevance in these painful economic times of Robert McElvaine’s classic collection of letters written to FDR, Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man. On Friday, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer aired a wonderful segment featuring McElvaine and his book,  incorporating some… Continue Reading Robert McElvaine on The News Hour: reconsidering consumption

Remembrances for Franklin abound

Our hearts are warmed by the outpouring of remembrances for John Hope Franklin. We’ve been blogging about it the past couple of days (here and here), but there’s no letting up yet. In a New York Times editorial, Brent Staples cites John Hope’s “groundbreaking work on free Negroes in antebellum North Carolina” (that would be JHF’s first book, The Free… Continue Reading Remembrances for Franklin abound

In memoriam, John Hope Franklin (1915-2009)

The ties between the nation’s most distinguished historian and UNC Press go back a very long way. In 1943, UNC Press (which had already made something of a name for itself by its books by and about African Americans) published John Hope Franklin’s first book, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860. It was a revision of his Harvard dissertation… Continue Reading In memoriam, John Hope Franklin (1915-2009)

Sad news: we’ve lost 2 giants

We’re mourning two great losses over here at the Press this afternoon. In addition to being UNC Press authors, both men were giants in their fields, and indeed helped establish and define new fields of scholarship. Both lived long, fulfilling lives in which their pioneering intellectual pursuits served the public good. Both gave of themselves tirelessly, mentoring and inspiring multiple… Continue Reading Sad news: we’ve lost 2 giants

Snips and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails

That’s what little boys are made of. So what are fraternities made of? Nicholas Syrett, author of The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, will be talking about the long and secretive history of male fraternities  on WUNC’s The State of Things at noon (and 9pm) today. You can listen live online or catch the podcast later… Continue Reading Snips and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails

Busy week – check out these events

If you’re in NC, you’ve got a couple chances to catch up with our busily touring authors this week. Tonight!!, Tuesday, March 24: Nancy Carter Crump, reception @ 5 pm, reading @ 5:45pm, Wilson Library UNC-CH. The author of Hearthside Cooking will be featured as part of the Southern Historical Collection Book Series, featuring authors whose research has involved material… Continue Reading Busy week – check out these events

The Obamas’ Working Marriage

  Kristin Celello, author of Making Marriage Work: A History of Marriage and Divorce in the Twentieth-Century United States, responds to Michelle Obama’s interview with People magazine regarding her marriage to the President. In a recent issue of People magazine, Michelle Obama does her best to dispel any notions that she and the President have a “perfect” marriage.  Rather, she… Continue Reading The Obamas’ Working Marriage

New (old) bird species named for biologist Alan Feduccia

Congratulations to author Alan Feduccia, who has just had a 120-million-year-old bird named after him! The fossil of the early Cretaceous period bird, named Confuciusornis feducciai, was recently discovered in ancient, dried up lake deposits in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, an area that has produced a “gold rush” of fossils in the last decade, Feduccia said. He helped to… Continue Reading New (old) bird species named for biologist Alan Feduccia

These mad days

Just minutes from now, our Point-Guard-in-Chief ™ will be releasing his brackets for the NCAA tournament on ESPN. But we’ve already learned that he’s got our Tar Heels in his final four! Here at the Press, Joanne and I are in the home stretch, sort of . . . almost? . . . putting together the fall 2009 catalog of… Continue Reading These mad days

Places to go, people to see

The sun is just starting to break through the morning cloud cover on this warm spring day. Last day of sunshine before we roll into a week of rain here in the Triangle, say the weather forecasters, so let’s make the most of it! In the next few days, there will be several opportunities to hear various UNC Press authors… Continue Reading Places to go, people to see

The fisher poets, then and now

“On the boat, I don’t have a TV,” he said. “We just read.” So it has been for hundreds of years. A recent New York Times article about the Fisher Poets Weekend (which was held this past weekend in Astoria, Oregon) introduces several of the seafaring poets who gather once a year to share verse inspired by their working lives.… Continue Reading The fisher poets, then and now