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August 19, 2009

Mental Toughness in Sports: A Ballerina’s Perspective

Imagine sitting in a backstage dressing room, snacking on trail mix and chatting with your friends, when your ballet teacher rushes in, frantically calling your name and informing you that one of the princesses has sprained her ankle and must be replaced in the ballet’s final act just ten minutes away. You are the shocked understudy required to dance in… Continue Reading Mental Toughness in Sports: A Ballerina’s Perspective

Categories Guest Bloggers/Juvenile/Sports/UNC Press News
August 16, 2009

Brazinsky on South Korea’s economic development and democratization

We welcome a guest post from Gregg Brazinsky, author of Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of a Democracy, which we have just released in paperback. August 15 marks a date of both historical and personal significance. It was on August 15, 1945, that Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies and relinquished its empire, thereby ending… Continue Reading Brazinsky on South Korea’s economic development and democratization

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Guest Bloggers/History
August 13, 2009

Happy Birthday, Annie Oakley

A guest post today from Laura Browder, author of Her Best Shot: Women and Guns in America and the forthcoming (May 2010) When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans, which features photographs by Sascha Pflaeging. Let’s take a moment today to celebrate the 149th birthday of Annie Oakley.  But let’s remember her not as just a great… Continue Reading Happy Birthday, Annie Oakley

Categories American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Guest Bloggers/History/Women's Studies
August 11, 2009

The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki

Saturday, August 9, marked the 64th anniversary of America’s WWII bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. In the following guest post, J. Samuel Walker, author of Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan, discusses the controversy over whether the use of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki served any military purpose and considers what did and didn’t… Continue Reading The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki

Categories Asian Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Military History
August 7, 2009

Power from the Gulf Stream

CNN.com recently ran a story about scientists at Florida Atlantic University researching and considering ways to harness energy from Gulf Stream currents off the coast of Florida. We happen to have a Gulf Stream expert in the UNC Press family, so we asked Stan Ulanski, author of The Gulf Stream: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the… Continue Reading Power from the Gulf Stream

Categories Author blog entry/Current Events/Environmental Studies/Guest Bloggers/Science/UNC Press Authors
July 27, 2009

A world without E. Lynn Harris (1955-2009)

Last week best-selling fiction writer E. Lynn Harris died at the age of 54. Harris’s closeted and openly gay black characters paved the way for a new and vibrant genre of popular literature with widespread appeal. Personally, Harris was a kind and generous man who sought to encourage and support other gay black writers, including E. Patrick Johnson, author of… Continue Reading A world without E. Lynn Harris (1955-2009)

Categories African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Current Events/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Southern Studies
June 24, 2009

Anne Rubin Follows the Traces of Sherman’s March

I set out on a bright June day, heading south to retrace the path of William Tecumseh Sherman’s 1865 march through the Carolinas.  I’m currently working on a project about the way Americans have remembered Sherman’s March, and I had already driven across Georgia the spring before.  Now it was time to work my way from the Bennett Place in… Continue Reading Anne Rubin Follows the Traces of Sherman’s March

Categories American History/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History/Military Studies/North Carolina/Travel/UNC Press Authors
June 22, 2009

Gary Bunt on the 2009 Iranian presidential elections…

Gary R. Bunt, senior lecturer in Islamic studies at the University of Wales, was kind enough to share his time and thoughts on the events surrounding the 2009 Iranian presidential election, the protests, and the deeply entrenched tensions between politics and religion. His most recent book, iMuslims, sheds new light on the nature of contemporary Islamic discourse, identity, and community.… Continue Reading Gary Bunt on the 2009 Iranian presidential elections…

Categories Events/Guest Bloggers/Islamic Studies/Middle Eastern Studies/Religion/UNC Press News
June 19, 2009

Juneteenth, Emancipation, and the Proclamation

Today, the UNC Press blog is happy to offer a guest post from William A. Blair, professor of U.S. history and director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University. In November, UNC Press will be publishing Lincoln’s Proclamation, a collection of essays coedited by Blair and Karen F. Younger that offers new… Continue Reading Juneteenth, Emancipation, and the Proclamation

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Civil War/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
June 16, 2009

Dads in scrubs: now assisting in a delivery room near you!

Today’s guest post is from Judith Walzer Leavitt, author of the recently released Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room. In her book, Leavitt follows the history of how expectant fathers, over the course of the twentieth century, gradually shifted from twiddling their thumbs in the waiting room to coaching breathing exercises in the birthing… Continue Reading Dads in scrubs: now assisting in a delivery room near you!

Categories American History/American Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine
June 12, 2009

Loving v. Virginia, then and now: race, sexuality, religion, & law

We welcome a guest post today from Fay Botham, author of the forthcoming book Almighty God Created the Races: Christianity, Interracial Marriage, and American Law. In her book, Botham demonstrates how Christianity was important to both racist and antiracist movements in the 19th and 20th centuries and how those movements influenced litigation over matters of marriage and race. In this… Continue Reading Loving v. Virginia, then and now: race, sexuality, religion, & law

Categories African American Studies/Civil Rights/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Law / Legal History/Religion/UNC Press Authors
May 21, 2009

More talk, less action: toward sensible health care reform

Today I’m pleased to have a guest post from Lois Shepherd, author of If That Ever Happens to Me: Making Life and Death Decisions after Terri Shiavo. Shepherd was a lawyer living in Tallahassee during the sensational days of the Schiavo case. Her book strips away the politics and semantics that tend to oversimplify the complex ethical issues at stake… Continue Reading More talk, less action: toward sensible health care reform

Categories Ethics/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/Law / Legal History/Public Policy
May 7, 2009

Obama’s foreign policy in light of ‘The American Ascendancy’

Today we welcome a guest post from Michael H. Hunt, author of The American Ascendancy: How the United States Gained and Wielded Global Dominance, a new paperback edition of which has just been published. In the book, Hunt gives a long historical view of what factors enabled the United States to evolve from colonial outpost to global preeminence and explores… Continue Reading Obama’s foreign policy in light of ‘The American Ascendancy’

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt/Politics/UNC Press Authors
April 3, 2009

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

Categories American History/Current Events/Economics/Guest Bloggers/Politics/Public Policy/The Book Biz
April 2, 2009

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)

Categories American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/folklore/Guest Bloggers/Labor Studies/UNC Press News
March 2, 2009

Women and Obama’s First 100 Days

What does the Obama presidency mean for women, especially in a time of financial crisis?  We’re pleased to have a guest post today from Lisa Levenstein, assistant professor of history at UNC-Greensboro and author of A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia, which we will publish May 1 (we’re accepting orders now).… Continue Reading Women and Obama’s First 100 Days

Categories African American Studies/American History/Current Events/Economics/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Politics/Public Policy/Women's Studies
February 25, 2009

Harwood follows up on ethical issues at stake in the octuplets case

  We’ve had a lot of passionate responses to Karey Harwood’s recent guest post about the ethical issues surrounding the California octuplets case. Harwood gave some helpful responses for further reading in the comments thread to that post. Here, we’re pleased to have a follow-up post from her, in which she addresses the pressures on patients and providers in the… Continue Reading Harwood follows up on ethical issues at stake in the octuplets case

Categories Current Events/Ethics/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/UNC Press News
February 6, 2009

Ethics and the California octuplets case

When news about a woman who had given birth to octuplets last week first hit the airwaves, the story was that all had survived the premature Caesarean delivery, and the eighth kid was one doctors hadn’t even known was coming! Surprise! Within days, however, as we learned more about the birth family – that the mother was single and already… Continue Reading Ethics and the California octuplets case

Categories Current Events/Ethics/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine
December 3, 2008

Reflections on “A life so noble,” The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers launch event

The following is a guest post from Michelle Lanier, curator of cultural history with the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties. Along with Historic Edenton Site Manager Linda Jordan Eure, Lanier helped to organize the launching of The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers (edited by Jean Fagan Yellin) on November 22, 2008. Photos and podcast links follow her… Continue Reading Reflections on “A life so noble,” The Harriet Jacobs Family Papers launch event

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Biography / Autobiography/Events/Guest Bloggers/History/North Carolina/UNC Press News
November 13, 2008

Reflections on the 2008 Election

The following post is from Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts, co-editors of The New Politics of North Carolina. Cooper is MPA director and assistant professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University. Knotts is department head and associate professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University. Every four years journalists, political commentators,… Continue Reading Reflections on the 2008 Election

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/North Carolina/Politics/Southern Studies