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Category: Military History

March 1, 2011

Leon Fink: Oceanic Piracy–A War without Nations

In today’s guest post, Leon Fink, author of Sweatshops at Sea: Merchant Seamen in the World’s First Globalized Industry, from 1812 to the Present, reflects on the recent Somali pirate attack on a group of Americans on a private yacht.  With piracy on the rise off the Somali coast, the relationship between commerce, globalization, power, and security becomes problematic.  Fink… Continue Reading Leon Fink: Oceanic Piracy–A War without Nations

Categories Author blog entry/Current Events/Global Studies/Guest Bloggers/Labor Studies/Military History/UNC Press Authors
February 4, 2011

Shane Maddock on the Persistent Nuclear Myths of the Cold War

Shane Maddock, author of Nuclear Apartheid: The Quest for American Atomic Supremacy from World War II to the Present blogs for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations at SHAFR.org. In his most recent post, after the ratification of the New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia, Maddock addresses some Cold War-era myths about American nuclear hegemony that… Continue Reading Shane Maddock on the Persistent Nuclear Myths of the Cold War

Categories American History/Current Events/History/Military History/Political Science
January 25, 2011

Michael Hunt: Restrepo: An Oscar for Afghanistan?

Update 4/21/2011:The lamentable news of Tim Hetherington’s death covering the civil conflict in Libya reached us yesterday (20 April 2011). Restrepo is one of this fine and courageous documentarian’s major achievements. His record of what it meant for U.S. soldiers to fight in the Afghan War will stand the test of time.—MHH Ignore all the vacuous policy statements, the bland… Continue Reading Michael Hunt: Restrepo: An Oscar for Afghanistan?

Categories Author blog entry/Columnists/Current Events/Film/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Political Science/UNC Press Authors
November 3, 2010

Southern Gateways: The best in southern reading from UNC Press

One of the strengths of UNC Press is our commitment to publishing first-rate books about the region in which we live. From college hoops to environmental history, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, from the coast to the hills, our books about the South educate and entertain readers within the region and beyond. We’ve recently updated our… Continue Reading Southern Gateways: The best in southern reading from UNC Press

Categories African American History/American History/Art / Architecture/Biography / Autobiography/Biology/Birds & Birding/Civil War/Cooking / Food/Craft/folklore/Gardening/Gender Studies/Hiking/Hurricanes/Jewish Studies/Juvenile/Latino Studies/Literature/Military History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Nature/North Carolina/Politics/Reference/Southern Studies/Sports/Travel/UNC Press News/Weather
October 29, 2010

Election 2010: Making the Wars Go Away

Proponents of military force learned from Vietnam that their freedom of action depended on insulating the public from the effects of war. Contractors were an ingenuous solution to the problem of a public squeamish about fighting and killing. Continue Reading Election 2010: Making the Wars Go Away

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Political Science/Public Policy
September 14, 2010

The Story of Service, Part 6: The US Colored Regiment

On July 26, a mural named SERVICE was dedicated at UNC’s School of Government in the Knapp-Sanders Building. The mural depicts a gathering of African-American leaders at the counter of a diner, painted by Colin Quashie as a creative interpretation of the historical 1960 Greensboro, North Carolina sit-in. We are featuring each of the eight panels in a series, highlighting… Continue Reading The Story of Service, Part 6: The US Colored Regiment

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Civil War/Military History/North Carolina/Religion/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
August 31, 2010

‘Confederate Minds’ and the Page 99 Test

We’ve previously mentioned the “Page 99 Test,” with which one can “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you,” according to Ford Madox Ford. Marshal Zeringue edits a blog that follows this theme, asking authors to test their books and analyze the content based on page 99. The authors… Continue Reading ‘Confederate Minds’ and the Page 99 Test

Categories American History/Civil War/History/Military History/Southern Studies
August 19, 2010

General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Barack Obama’s Afghanistan commanders are something else. First, they promoted a highly debatable counter-insurgency strategy. Then, despite the numerous and cogent contemporary critiques, they got the president to buy into their particular brand of wishful thinking, and they got from him the additional troops supposedly needed for success. They have since failed to deliver. There are no convincing signs of… Continue Reading General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
August 5, 2010

Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Developments over the last month or so have put the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan under a dark cloud. The McChrystal affair and the WikiLeaks revelations are symptomatic of deeper troubles: the rapid bankruptcy of counterinsurgency, a surge in U.S. casualties, the persistently problematic role of Pakistan, the continued immobility of the Karzai regime, the sluggish progress in training Afghan forces,… Continue Reading Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
July 6, 2010

Sutherland Wins Inaugural Tom Watson Brown Book Award

We know, we know. Winning isn’t everything, but we have to admit, it sure does feel good!  Author Daniel Sutherland was awarded the first ever Tom Watson Brown Book Award, a $50,000 prize, by the Society of Civil War Historians, for his book A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War. The Watson Brown prize “is awarded… Continue Reading Sutherland Wins Inaugural Tom Watson Brown Book Award

Categories American History/Military History/Southern Studies/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
July 2, 2010

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter. Continue Reading The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Politics
June 24, 2010

June is LGBT Pride Month

When former President Bill Clinton was elected nearly 18 years ago, there was heated debate about gays serving in the United States military. Originally, a proposed federal law was to ban all gays from the armed services; Clinton rallied support for a compromise and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was born in 1993. Seven years later, Clinton declared June… Continue Reading June is LGBT Pride Month

Categories American Studies/Civil Rights/Cultural Studies/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Military History/Military Studies/UNC Press Authors
May 6, 2010

Victory in Vietnam: The Myth That Won’t Die But Can’t Stand Up

The U.K. edition of A Vietnam War Reader: A Documentary History from American and Vietnamese Perspectives hits bookstores across the pond today — just as Britons head to the polls to elect a new Prime Minister. In a previous guest post, editor Michael H. Hunt addressed one of the more striking similarities between the Vietnam War and the current conflict… Continue Reading Victory in Vietnam: The Myth That Won’t Die But Can’t Stand Up

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History
May 5, 2010

When Janey Comes Marching Home – Photo exhibit now in Arlington, Va.

When Janey Comes Marching Home: Portraits of Women Combat Veterans is more than a book we’ve just published — it’s a multimedia project based on interviews with dozens of female military veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book juxtaposes 48 photographs by Sascha Pflaeging with oral histories collected by Laura Browder to provide a dramatic portrait of… Continue Reading When Janey Comes Marching Home – Photo exhibit now in Arlington, Va.

Categories American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Current Events/Gender Studies/Military History/Women's Studies
April 6, 2010

Karzai and the Shadow of Diem

“We’re frustrated,” conceded President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, on Monday. The U.S. relationship with Afghan president Hamid Karzai is currently strained, to say the least. Offering some historical perspective on the situation, we welcome a guest post today from Michael H. Hunt, whose most recent book, A Vietnam War Reader: A Documentary History from American and Vietnamese Perspectives, was… Continue Reading Karzai and the Shadow of Diem

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt/Middle Eastern Studies/Military History/Politics/Public Policy
March 16, 2010

Remembering My Lai in the year of Calley’s apology

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, certainly not a happy memory—in fact , the opposite of that—but one well worth stopping to ponder. On this day in 1968, during the Vietnam War, the massacre was carried out by United States troops.  Under the direction of Lt. William L. Calley Jr., a unit of the army tortured,… Continue Reading Remembering My Lai in the year of Calley’s apology

Categories American History/Military History/UNC Press News
March 5, 2010

National Women’s History Month: Women at War

If you are familiar with the UNC Press Blog, you probably know that we know a thing or two about celebrating. If it has a national celebration day, week, or month, we probably have it marked on our calendars well in advance. Why else would we have a 1000-word post on the merits of National Chili Day, like we did… Continue Reading National Women’s History Month: Women at War

Categories American History/Civil War/Current Events/Gender Studies/History/Military History/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
February 11, 2010

Bringing the War Home: Operation Homecoming and the Unending Vietnam War

We welcome a guest post today from Michael J. Allen, author of Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War. In his book, Allen analyzes the effects that activism by POW and MIA families had on U.S. politics before and after the Vietnam War’s official end. In this post, marking the anniversary of the first… Continue Reading Bringing the War Home: Operation Homecoming and the Unending Vietnam War

Categories American History/Guest Bloggers/History/Military History/Military Studies
December 2, 2009

Obama Pronounces on Afghanistan: Deja Vu All Over Again!

In a follow-up to his article on Obama and Afghanistan, Michael Hunt responds to President Obama’s speech at West Point last night, in which the President laid out his plan for additional troops and a timeline for withdrawal.–ellen  [author photo by Dan Sears] Barack Obama has an impressive intellect, and he has given the decision on Afghanistan policy the careful,… Continue Reading Obama Pronounces on Afghanistan: Deja Vu All Over Again!

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics/UNC Press Authors
November 25, 2009

Obama and Afghanistan

Before we close up shop for the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to highlight some excellent commentary on President Obama’s impending decision about how to proceed with the war in Afghanistan. The President is scheduled to make an announcement next Tuesday, December 1, about his intentions for America’s next steps. Between now and then, we would do well to consider the… Continue Reading Obama and Afghanistan

Categories American History/Current Events/History/Military History/Military Studies/Politics/UNC Press Authors