Category: Guest Bloggers

Billie Jean King Wins Again

The following is a guest post by Susan Ware, author of Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports. As part of the research for my 2011 biography of Billie Jean King, I watched a video of “The Battle of the Sexes,” which took place fifty years ago on September 20, 1973. There it all was:… Continue Reading Billie Jean King Wins Again

Black “Lady Lovers” and the Search for Queer Community

The following is a guest post by Cookie Woolner, author of The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall which is now available wherever books are sold. Extraordinary in its scope and inventiveness to focus on their intimate lives . . . . Woolner’s beautiful prose and writing style makes this book a delight to read. Academics… Continue Reading Black “Lady Lovers” and the Search for Queer Community

The Arctic Refuge and the Power of Grassroots Visual Culture

On September 6, the Biden administration made a critical announcement about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, canceling the remaining oil and gas leases that had been auctioned off during the waning days of the Trump administration. The announcement marked a major win for environmental and Indigenous advocates, who have been fighting for decades to protect this land from fossil fuel… Continue Reading The Arctic Refuge and the Power of Grassroots Visual Culture

9 Reasons to Read “Urban Specters”

The Following is a guest post by Sarah Mayorga, author of Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism, now available wherever books are sold. Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism is about working-class and poor people in Cincinnati and how they make sense of their lives. How the stories they tell about the world are often shaped… Continue Reading 9 Reasons to Read “Urban Specters”

How to write a book: The timeline

Thanks to David Menconi for allowing us to reblog the following post outlining the timeline for writing his forthcoming book Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music. This post originally appeared on his blog, Losering Books. David is the 2019 North Carolina Piedmont Laureate and was a staff writer at the Raleigh News &… Continue Reading How to write a book: The timeline

Confounding White Supremacy

The following is a guest post by Michael Ayers Trotti, author of The End of Public Execution: Race, Religion, and Punishment in the American South, which is available now wherever books are sold. This was not what white southern state officials in the 1880s thought punishment should be. When African American John Williams, condemned for murder, was publicly hanged in… Continue Reading Confounding White Supremacy

Queer History is Southern History; Queer Women are Southern Women

The following is a guest post by La Shonda Mims, author of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South, which is available now everywhere books are sold. When I first conceived of Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists, I knew that I wanted to address the lack of queer people in southern US histories and the lack of… Continue Reading Queer History is Southern History; Queer Women are Southern Women

Coming Home: A Book Tour in NC

The following is a guest post by Felicia Arriaga, author of BEHIND CRIMMIGRATION: ICE, Law Enforcement, and Resistance in America. 5/23 at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, Asheville, NC 5/25 at the Levine Museum in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Charlotte, NC 5/27 at Diamante Arts & Cultural Center, Raleigh, NC I wanted to host a book tour in North Carolina in the first… Continue Reading Coming Home: A Book Tour in NC

“Solidarity Across the Americas” Book Events Recap

Margaret M. Power, author of Solidarity Across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and Anti-imperialism, recently completed some events in Chicago and the Bay Area. Below she reflects on and recaps her events and shares a video a student made of Pedro Albizu Campos’s trip through Latin America. The song playing in the background of the video is Despierta Boricua, the hymn of the… Continue Reading “Solidarity Across the Americas” Book Events Recap

Open Access for Monographs is Here. But Are we Ready for It?

By John Sherer, Spangler Family Director of the University of North Carolina Press. He is the chair of the Association of University Presses Open Access Committee and is the Primary Investigator in the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded Sustainable History Monograph Pilot. This post originally appeared on The Scholarly Kitchen. At the University of North Carolina Press, we recently completed a… Continue Reading Open Access for Monographs is Here. But Are we Ready for It?

Finding Pluck: The Origins of “Who We Are Now”

The following is a guest blog post by Michelle Fishburne, author of Who We Are Now: Stories of What Americans Lost and Found during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which is on-sale today, everywhere books are sold. Who We Are Now is a collection of 100 first-person stories about people’s lives during the Covid-19 pandemic, gathered as Michelle Fishburne motor-homed 12,000 miles… Continue Reading Finding Pluck: The Origins of “Who We Are Now”

Reliving King’s Dream

The following is a guest post by Daniel T. Fleming, author of Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On January 20, 1986, the United States celebrated the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Half a million people filled the streets of downtown Atlanta as the inaugural King Day parade moved along Peachtree Street and… Continue Reading Reliving King’s Dream

A Fresh Look at the History of Pecan Pie

The following is a guest blog post by Rebecca Sharpless, author of Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South, available now wherever books are sold.             Come Thanksgiving, pecan pie, a gooey concoction of syrup, eggs, and butter, and pecans, will be on many American tables. Along with pumpkin and apple, it’s one of the most popular… Continue Reading A Fresh Look at the History of Pecan Pie

The Overturning of Roe v. Wade and A History of Sexual Violence Towards Women of Color, Black Women, Indigenous Women, and Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People.

The following is a guest post by Bernadine Marie Hernández, author of Border Bodies: Racialized Sexuality, Sexual Capital, and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Borderland, available wherever books are sold. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion. On June 7, 2022, my book about the sexual… Continue Reading The Overturning of Roe v. Wade and A History of Sexual Violence Towards Women of Color, Black Women, Indigenous Women, and Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People.

C. Vann Woodward and the Beginning of the End of Jim Crow’s Career in the SHA: Part 1

The following is part one of a two-part guest blog post by James. C. Cobb, author of C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian, available now from your favorite bookstore. When C. Vann Woodward agreed to chair the program committee for the annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association in 1949, he was already known not only for his scholarship, but for his… Continue Reading C. Vann Woodward and the Beginning of the End of Jim Crow’s Career in the SHA: Part 1

The Theatrical Origins of Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Wong

The following is a guest blog post by Josephine Lee, author of Oriental, Black, and White: The Formation of Racial Habits in American Theater, available now wherever books are sold. Much like the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor, the 2007 Norbit served as a star vehicle for Eddie Murphy’s impersonations. Murphy played both the nebbish Norbit and Rasputia, his tyrannical wife (the latter complete with… Continue Reading The Theatrical Origins of Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Wong

Archival Research in China and Myanmar before the Doors Closed

The following is a guest blog post by Zach Fredman, author of The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949, available now wherever books and e-books are sold. I spent more than year in Asia researching The Tormented Alliance as a PhD student. My search for sources took me to municipal and provincial archives from all areas of China… Continue Reading Archival Research in China and Myanmar before the Doors Closed

Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”

Sunday, August 28, we celebrate the anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. In the following guest post, Daniel T. Fleming, author of Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day—available NOW wherever books and e-books are sold—writes about the history surrounding the copyright of the… Continue Reading Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”

“Black Faces, White Spaces” Now Available as an Audiobook

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney is now available as an audiobook from Audible, Libro.fm, and Kobo. . Praise for Black Faces, White Spaces: “Makes a clear case for the dominant culture’s habitual (though, sometimes unwitting) rejection of African Americans.”—Library Journal, starred review “Weaving scholarly analysis with interviews of… Continue Reading “Black Faces, White Spaces” Now Available as an Audiobook

Who Works for Whom? Asian/Asian American Characters in Green Book

The following is a guest blog post by Josephine Lee, author of Oriental, Black, and White: The Formation of Racial Habits in American Theater, available for pre-order and on sale September 2022. Oriental, Black, and White focuses on how nineteenth and early twentieth century American theater featured Chinese, Indian, and other “oriental” characters played by both Black and white actors. These stock… Continue Reading Who Works for Whom? Asian/Asian American Characters in Green Book