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Category: American Studies

November 1, 2019

Author Interview: Jeremy Zallen on American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865

In this Q&A, UNC Press graduate student intern Eric Bontempo (@ebontemp) talks with author Jeremy Zallen about his new book American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865, out this month from UNC Press. From whale oil to kerosene, from the colonial period to the end of the U.S. Civil War, modern, industrial lights brought wonderful improvements and incredible wealth… Continue Reading Author Interview: Jeremy Zallen on American Lucifers: The Dark History of Artificial Light, 1750-1865

Categories American History/American Studies/Environmental Studies/Nature/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
October 25, 2019

Author Interview: Daniel S. Pierce on Tar Heel Lightnin’: How Secret Stills and Fast Cars Made North Carolina the Moonshine Capital of the World

In this Q&A, Daniel S. Pierce, author of Tar Heel Lightnin’: How Secret Stills and Fast Cars Made North Carolina the Moonshine Capital of the World, sits down with director of publicity Gina Mahalek to discuss the business of moonshine in North Carolina. From the late nineteenth century well into the 1960s, North Carolina boasted some of the nation’s most restrictive… Continue Reading Author Interview: Daniel S. Pierce on Tar Heel Lightnin’: How Secret Stills and Fast Cars Made North Carolina the Moonshine Capital of the World

Categories American History/American Studies/Cooking / Food/North Carolina/Southern Studies/Travel/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
October 23, 2019

Rachel F. Seidman: Voices from Speaking of Feminism

Today we welcome a guest post from Rachel F. Seidman, author of Speaking of Feminism: Today’s Activists on the Past, Present, and Future of the U.S. Women’s Movement. From the Women’s Marches to the #MeToo movement, it is clear that feminist activism is still alive and well in the twenty-first century. But how does a new generation of activists understand… Continue Reading Rachel F. Seidman: Voices from Speaking of Feminism

Categories American History/American Studies/Gender Studies/Interviews/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
September 27, 2019

Interview with Candy Gunther Brown about Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion?

The second episode in Siobhan Barco’s podcast series featuring UNC Press books is live! You can listen to Siobhan talk with Candy Gunther Brown on New Books in Law about her book Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion?  (UNC Press, 2019). The series is produced with support from the Versatile Humanists at Duke… Continue Reading Interview with Candy Gunther Brown about Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion?

Categories American Studies/Education/Law / Legal History/Religion/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
September 23, 2019

Rachel F. Seidman: On the Autumn Equinox, Why Today’s Feminists Give Me Hope

Today we welcome a guest post from Rachel F. Seidman, author of Speaking of Feminism: Today’s Activists on the Past, Present and Future of the U.S. Women’s Movement, published today by UNC Press. From the Women’s Marches to the #MeToo movement, it is clear that feminist activism is still alive and well in the twenty-first century. But how does a new… Continue Reading Rachel F. Seidman: On the Autumn Equinox, Why Today’s Feminists Give Me Hope

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Gender Studies/History/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies
September 20, 2019

Author Interview: Charles L. Hughes on “Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns”

Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, weighs in on Ken Burns’ new documentary Country Music as well as past and present manifestations of “the central racial paradox at the heart of country music.” In the sound of the 1960s and 1970s, nothing symbolized the rift between black and white America… Continue Reading Author Interview: Charles L. Hughes on “Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns”

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Cultural Studies/Music/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
April 8, 2019

Author Interview: A conversation with Kathleen Sprows Cummings, author of A Saint of Our Own

Kathleen Sprows Cummings is the author of A Saint of Our Own:  How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American, just published by UNC Press. What drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the… Continue Reading Author Interview: A conversation with Kathleen Sprows Cummings, author of A Saint of Our Own

Categories American History/American Studies/Cultural Studies/Religion/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
January 23, 2019

Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote: Massalena Ahtone, American Indian Exposition, 1940

Today we welcome a guest post from Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote, author of Crafting an Indigenous Nation:  Kiowa Expressive Culture in the Progressive Era, just published by UNC Press. In this in-depth interdisciplinary study, Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote reveals how Kiowa people drew on the tribe’s rich history of expressive culture to assert its identity at a time of profound challenge. Examining traditional forms… Continue Reading Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote: Massalena Ahtone, American Indian Exposition, 1940

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
January 16, 2019

Andrew Newman: Captivity Narratives and The Handmaid’s Tale, Part 2

Today we welcome the second of his two-part guest post from Andrew Newman, author of Allegories of Encounter:  Colonial Literacy and Indian Captivities, just published by UNC Press and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Presenting an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to colonial America’s best-known literary genre, Andrew Newman analyzes depictions of reading, writing, and recollecting texts in… Continue Reading Andrew Newman: Captivity Narratives and The Handmaid’s Tale, Part 2

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Film/Gender Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
January 9, 2019

Andrew Newman: Captivity Narratives and The Handmaid’s Tale, Part 1

Today we welcome the first of a two-part guest post from Andrew Newman, author of Allegories of Encounter:  Colonial Literacy and Indian Captivities, just published by UNC Press and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. Presenting an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to colonial America’s best-known literary genre, Andrew Newman analyzes depictions of reading, writing, and recollecting texts in… Continue Reading Andrew Newman: Captivity Narratives and The Handmaid’s Tale, Part 1

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Film/Gender Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
January 3, 2019

Announcing the Early American Literature Book Prize for 2018

Professor Caroline Wigginton of the University of Mississippi has been selected to receive the 2018 Early American Literature Book Prize, which is awarded in even calendar years to a first monograph published in the prior two years, and in odd years to a second or subsequent book. Wigginton’s In the Neighborhood: Women’s Publication in Early America was published by the University of… Continue Reading Announcing the Early American Literature Book Prize for 2018

Categories American Studies/Awards/Literature/UNC Press News
December 10, 2018

E. Patrick Johnson: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.

Today we welcome a guest post from E. Patrick Johnson, author of Black. Queer. Southern. Women.:  An Oral History, just published by UNC Press. Drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer women who were born, raised, and continue to reside in the American South, this book powerfully reveals the way these women experience and express… Continue Reading E. Patrick Johnson: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Gay / Lesbian Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
November 29, 2018

Michael E. Staub: Ghosts of Bell Curves Past

Today we welcome a guest post from Michael E. Staub, author of The Mismeasure of Minds:  Debating Race and Intelligence between Brown and The Bell Curve, just published by UNC Press. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision required desegregation of America’s schools, but it also set in motion an agonizing multi-decade debate over race, class, and IQ. In… Continue Reading Michael E. Staub: Ghosts of Bell Curves Past

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Author blog entry/Current Events/Education/Public Policy/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
November 7, 2018

Lynn Dumenil: Remembering American Women in World War I

This Sunday, November 11th, will be the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day, and we welcome a guest post from Lynn Dumenil, author of The Second Line of Defense:  American Women and World War I, soon to be published in paperback by UNC Press. In tracing the rise of the modern idea of the American “new woman,” Dumenil examines World War… Continue Reading Lynn Dumenil: Remembering American Women in World War I

Categories American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
October 16, 2018

Ronny Regev: On Film History and Labor Contracts

Today we welcome a guest post from Ronny Regev, author of Working in Hollywood:  How the Studio System Turned Creativity into Labor, just published by UNC Press. A history of the Hollywood film industry as a modern system of labor, this book reveals an important untold story of an influential twentieth-century workplace. Ronny Regev argues that the Hollywood studio system… Continue Reading Ronny Regev: On Film History and Labor Contracts

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Cultural Studies/Film/History/Labor Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
October 8, 2018

Malinda Maynor Lowery: A Nation of Nations

Today is Indigenous People’s Day, and we welcome a guest post from Malinda Maynor Lowery, author of The Lumbee Indians:  An American Struggle, just published by UNC Press. Jamestown, the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and Plymouth Rock are central to America’s mythic origin stories. Then, we are told, the main characters–the “friendly” Native Americans who met the settlers–disappeared. But the… Continue Reading Malinda Maynor Lowery: A Nation of Nations

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
July 17, 2018

Hertha D. Sweet Wong: The History of Canada, as told by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

Today we welcome a guest post from Hertha D. Sweet Wong, author of Picturing Identity:  Contemporary American Autobiography in Image and Text, just published by UNC Press. In Picturing Identity, Hertha D. Sweet Wong examines the intersection of writing and visual art in the autobiographical work of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American writers and artists who employ a mix of written and… Continue Reading Hertha D. Sweet Wong: The History of Canada, as told by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
June 13, 2018

Hertha D. Sweet Wong: The long history of Native identity, in words and pictures

Today we welcome a guest post from Hertha D. Sweet Wong, author of Picturing Identity:  Contemporary American Autobiography in Image and Text, just published by UNC Press. In Picturing Identity, Hertha D. Sweet Wong examines the intersection of writing and visual art in the autobiographical work of twentieth- and twenty-first-century American writers and artists who employ a mix of written and… Continue Reading Hertha D. Sweet Wong: The long history of Native identity, in words and pictures

Categories American Studies/Author blog entry/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press News
November 30, 2017

Author Interview: Stephanie Elizondo Griest, All the Agents and Saints

Today UNC Press publicity director Gina Mahalek talks to Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands, about liminal spaces/borderlands, spirituality, shared struggles, and more. ### Gina Mahalek: Your first four books are a celebration of wanderlust, which has fueled your travels to nearly 50 countries. Why did you leave the open road for… Continue Reading Author Interview: Stephanie Elizondo Griest, All the Agents and Saints

Categories American Studies/Interviews/Latino Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Travel
November 9, 2017

A Conversation with Joo Ok Kim: On the Korean War and the Global Gothic of U.S. Empire

In the Fall 2016 issue of south: a scholarly journal, Joo Ok Kim published a piece entitled, “Declining Misery: Rural Florida’s Hmong and Korean Farmers.” She is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Latino/a Studies at the University of Kansas. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Asian American Studies and Verge: Studies in Global Asians. Her book… Continue Reading A Conversation with Joo Ok Kim: On the Korean War and the Global Gothic of U.S. Empire

Categories American Studies/Interviews/Journals