Category: Guest Bloggers

A. Wilson Greene: Siege or Campaign? What Should We Call the Battle for Petersburg?

Today, we welcome a guest post from A. Wilson Greene, author of A Campaign of Giants–The Battle for Petersburg:  Volume 1: From the Crossing of the James to the Crater, just published by UNC Press. Grinding, bloody, and ultimately decisive, the Petersburg Campaign was the Civil War’s longest and among its most complex. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee… Continue Reading A. Wilson Greene: Siege or Campaign? What Should We Call the Battle for Petersburg?

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

Mark Wilde-Ramsing and Linda Carnes-McNaughton : Archaeological Treasure aboard Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize

Today, we welcome a guest post from Mark Wilde-Ramsing and Linda Carnes-McNaughton, authors of Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize:  The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge, just published by UNC Press. In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge. Over the next six months,… Continue Reading Mark Wilde-Ramsing and Linda Carnes-McNaughton : Archaeological Treasure aboard Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize

Mushroom of the Month, June 2018: Painted Suillus, Suillus spraguei

Continuing our cool new monthly series, Mushroom of the Month, brought to you by Michael W. Hopping, co-author of A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas:  A Southern Gateways Guide — this month it’s Painted Suillus, Suillus spraguei. Mushrooms in the wild present an enticing challenge: some are delicious, others are deadly, and still others take on almost unbelievable… Continue Reading Mushroom of the Month, June 2018: Painted Suillus, Suillus spraguei

Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Trumpism and Anarchist Problem Solving

Today we welcome a guest post from Courtney Elizabeth Knapp, author of Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie:  Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just published from UNC Press. What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the politics of… Continue Reading Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Trumpism and Anarchist Problem Solving

Dalia Antonia Muller: Our America? Whose América?

Today, we welcome a guest post from Dalia Antonia Muller, author of Cuban Émigrés and Independence in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf World. During the violent years of war marking Cuba’s final push for independence from Spain, over 3,000 Cuban émigrés, men and women, rich and poor, fled to Mexico. But more than a safe haven, Mexico was a key site, Dalia… Continue Reading Dalia Antonia Muller: Our America? Whose América?

Steven M. Stowe: Lives Written Larger than War

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, out now from UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Lives Written Larger than War

John M. Coggeshall: Big T or little “t’s”: The Contingent Nature of History

Today we welcome a guest post from John M. Coggeshall, author of Liberia, South Carolina: An African American Appalachian Community, just published by UNC Press. In 2007, while researching mountain culture in upstate South Carolina, anthropologist John M. Coggeshall stumbled upon the small community of Liberia in the Blue Ridge foothills. There he met Mable Owens Clarke and her family,… Continue Reading John M. Coggeshall: Big T or little “t’s”: The Contingent Nature of History

Sally Dwyer-McNulty: Fashioning Catholicism and Jewish Allies

Today we welcome a guest post from Sally Dwyer-McNulty, author of Common Threads: A Cultural History of Clothing in American Catholicism available in paperback from UNC Press. A well-illustrated cultural history of the apparel worn by American Catholics, Dwyer-McNulty’s book reveals the transnational origins and homegrown significance of clothing in developing identity, unity, and a sense of respectability for a… Continue Reading Sally Dwyer-McNulty: Fashioning Catholicism and Jewish Allies

Jason W. Smith: Creating Matthew Fontaine Maury’s Wind and Current Charts

Today we welcome a guest post from Jason W. Smith, author of To Master the Boundless Sea:  The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire, just published by UNC Press in our Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges series. As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like “sea power” derived not only… Continue Reading Jason W. Smith: Creating Matthew Fontaine Maury’s Wind and Current Charts

Rebecca Tuuri: Black Women’s Political Power (and Pragmatism)

Today we welcome a guest post by Rebecca Tuuri, author of Strategic Sisterhood: The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, just published by UNC Press. When women were denied a major speaking role at the 1963 March on Washington, Dorothy Height, head of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), organized her own women’s conference for… Continue Reading Rebecca Tuuri: Black Women’s Political Power (and Pragmatism)

Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt: Wakanda Mexicana

Today we welcome a guest post from Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt, author of The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950, just published by UNC Press. In this history of the social and human sciences in Mexico and the United States, Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt reveals intricate connections among the development of science, the concept of race,… Continue Reading Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt: Wakanda Mexicana

Steven M. Stowe: Was Love Trivial in the Civil War?

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, just published by UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Was Love Trivial in the Civil War?

Craig Bruce Smith: Claims of a “Very Honorable” Kim Jong Un are Trump-ed Up

Today, we welcome a guest post from Craig Bruce Smith, author of American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era, just published by UNC Press. The American Revolution was not only a revolution for liberty and freedom, it was also a revolution of ethics, reshaping what colonial Americans understood as “honor” and “virtue.” As Craig Bruce… Continue Reading Craig Bruce Smith: Claims of a “Very Honorable” Kim Jong Un are Trump-ed Up

Mushroom of the Month, May 2018: Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Ganoderma tsugae

Today we initiate a new monthly series, Mushroom of the Month, brought to you by Michael W. Hopping, co-author of A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas:  A Southern Gateways Guide, just published by UNC Press.  Mushrooms in the wild present an enticing challenge: some are delicious, others are deadly, and still others take on almost unbelievable forms. A… Continue Reading Mushroom of the Month, May 2018: Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Ganoderma tsugae

Steven M. Stowe: Understanding People We Don’t Like

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, just published by UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Understanding People We Don’t Like

Joanna Ruth Marsland: In Memoriam: Dick Jenrette (1929-2018)

In Memoriam: Dick Jenrette (1929-2018) On Sunday, April 22nd, UNC Press lost a dear friend with the death of Dick Jenrette. In honor of the Press and his passion, Dick endowed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Series in Architecture and the Decorative Arts during the Press’s 75th anniversary campaign in the mid-1990s, supporting works on American architecture, material culture, and craftsmanship. … Continue Reading Joanna Ruth Marsland: In Memoriam: Dick Jenrette (1929-2018)

Nora Doyle: How Motherhood in America became White and Middle Class

Today, we welcome a guest post from Nora Doyle, author of Maternal Bodies:  Redefining Motherhood in Early America, publishing this month from UNC Press. In Maternal Bodies, Nora Doyle shows that depictions of motherhood in American culture began to define the ideal mother by her emotional and spiritual roles rather than by her physical work as a mother. As a… Continue Reading Nora Doyle: How Motherhood in America became White and Middle Class

Venus Bivar: Romanticising the French Countryside

Today we welcome a guest post from Venus Bivar, author of Organic Resistance:  The Struggle over Industrial Farming in Postwar France. France is often held up as a bastion of gastronomic refinement and as a model of artisanal agriculture and husbandry. But French farming is not at all what it seems. Countering the standard stories of gastronomy, tourism, and leisure… Continue Reading Venus Bivar: Romanticising the French Countryside

Nora Doyle: Breastfeeding and American Culture: Idealizing Maternal Virtue in the Eighteenth Century and Today

Today, we welcome a guest post from Nora Doyle, author of Maternal Bodies:  Redefining Motherhood in Early America, publishing this month from UNC Press. In Maternal Bodies, Nora Doyle shows that depictions of motherhood in American culture began to define the ideal mother by her emotional and spiritual roles rather than by her physical work as a mother. As a… Continue Reading Nora Doyle: Breastfeeding and American Culture: Idealizing Maternal Virtue in the Eighteenth Century and Today