May 20, 2010
May 14, 2010
The Legacy of Thomas Day
During the mid-1800s, Thomas Day was the most successful cabinet maker working in North Carolina. A significant figure in the history of woodworking, equally as important for his role in American history as an astoundingly successful free man of color in the Antebellum South, Day developed a truly original aesthetic and showed unmatched skill as a maker of cabinets, furniture,… Continue Reading The Legacy of Thomas Day
May 12, 2010
Lena Horne and the Irony of Cultural Politics
We welcome a guest post today from Lauren Rebecca Sklaroff, author of Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era. In her book, Sklaroff argues that New Deal cultural programs supporting notable black intellectuals, celebrities, and artists (including Lena Horne, Joe Louis, Duke Ellington, and Richard Wright) represent a key moment in the… Continue Reading Lena Horne and the Irony of Cultural Politics
May 10, 2010
NASCAR Hall of Fame Opens
Tomorrow’s the big day: the NASCAR Hall of Fame grand opening in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Asheville Citizen-Times gives us a little taste of the place. Later this month, five legendary figures from NASCAR history will be inducted into the Hall of Fame: Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Jr., Bill France Sr., Junior Johnson, and Richard Petty. We’ve got no quarrel… Continue Reading NASCAR Hall of Fame Opens
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
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.
May 3, 2010
Septima Clark, Freedom’s Teacher
It is night. A lone black woman walks through a cornfield in South Carolina. The stars wink above her. Crickets and cicadas grow quiet as she passes and then resume their orchestral humming, now punctuated by the sound of rustling leaves a little farther off. She moves toward an unpainted one-room building. When she gets there, she will have to… Continue Reading Septima Clark, Freedom’s Teacher
April 30, 2010
The Republicans’ “Southern Strategy” Unmasked?
When we got wind of Michael Steele’s recent comments about the Republican Party continuing a “Southern Strategy” for the past 40 years, we turned to an expert on southern politics for insight into Steele’s allusion to the Nixon-era strategy of racial exclusion. Michael Perman is author of Pursuit of Unity: A Political History of the American South, which traces the… Continue Reading The Republicans’ “Southern Strategy” Unmasked?
April 28, 2010
Gerda Lerner’s 90th
We write today in anticipation of Gerda Lerner’s 90th birthday, coming up Friday, April 30. Her students and colleagues and publishers who know her as the founder of her field all shout “Happy birthday!” But whether you know her by name or not, she has certainly shaped the world of ideas around you. And for that, as well as for… Continue Reading Gerda Lerner’s 90th
April 27, 2010
Confederate History Month and the Politics of Memory
We welcome a guest post today from Anne E. Marshall, author of Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State, which we’ll publish in December 2010. The book traces the development of a Confederate identity in Kentucky between 1865 and 1925 that belied the fact that Kentucky never left the Union and that… Continue Reading Confederate History Month and the Politics of Memory
April 26, 2010
Gazetteer Contest Winner Announced!
Congratulations to everyone who participated in our Gazetteer/NC trivia contest. Maybe we’ll have to come up with harder questions next time? Of the 29 people who responded to the contest, 15 got all the answers correct. It all hinged on question #7: How many North Carolina counties take their name from American Indian words or names? The correct answer, according… Continue Reading Gazetteer Contest Winner Announced!
April 26, 2010
Pauley Receives Austrian Cross of Honor
During his scholarly career, Bruce Pauley has built a name for himself as an authority on Austrian history. Pauley’s five books on the subject, including the award winning UNC Press publication From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism, have previously earned the professor a number of awards and distinctions, including the 1994 Austrian Cultural Institute Book Prize and… Continue Reading Pauley Receives Austrian Cross of Honor
April 20, 2010
Introducing The Journal of the Civil War Era: Call for Papers
Manuscripts are being solicited for a new peer-review journal that incorporates a broad view of the Civil War era. Published in collaboration with The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University, The Journal of the Civil War Era will launch its inaugural issue in March 2011. William… Continue Reading Introducing The Journal of the Civil War Era: Call for Papers
April 15, 2010
A Retired Postal Worker’s Tax Day Recollections
From Mississippi to Manhattan, I learned that African American postal workers’ decades-long challenge to the post office and postal union status quo–that for years included segregation and discrimination–was a key factor in transforming the post office. Continue Reading A Retired Postal Worker’s Tax Day Recollections
April 14, 2010
Lincoln’s Legacy
Though the American Civil War was a multi-year event, spanning four years of death and destruction, it seems to be most tied to the month of April. The cruel month was host to the first battle of the war, at Fort Sumter, as well as the Confederate surrender at Appomattox in 1865. However, the most famous April moment associated with… Continue Reading Lincoln’s Legacy
April 14, 2010
Today’s Segregated Schools
A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county’s only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced. (read the whole story here) When I saw the story yesterday headlined “Miss. county schools ordered to comply with… Continue Reading Today’s Segregated Schools
April 13, 2010
Why Are Children Killing Children in New Orleans?
We published Lance Hill’s book The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement several years ago, but we’ve stayed in touch with him, eager to hear his reports from New Orleans through Katrina and after. As an activist and civil rights historian, he brings a valuable perspective to local politics and educational issues of a city still… Continue Reading Why Are Children Killing Children in New Orleans?
April 13, 2010
‘Change Comes Knocking’ to air on WUNC-TV tonight
Tonight at 10 p.m. on WUNC-TV will be the broadcast premiere of the documentary film Change Comes Knocking: The Story of the NC Fund. The film explores a bold, biracial initiative to fight poverty in 1960s North Carolina. The anti-poverty project known as the North Carolina Fund is also the subject of a new book by Robert Korstad and James… Continue Reading ‘Change Comes Knocking’ to air on WUNC-TV tonight
April 9, 2010
Jewish Life in NC–Leonard Rogoff’s book is blogged at ABC 11’s website!
Today we’d like to send you over to the website for ABC 11 Eyewitness News because today, John Clark, who is an anchor and reporter over there, writes about Leonard Rogoff’s book, Down Home: Jewish Life in North Carolina. In his book, Rogoff chronicles Jewish life in the Tar Heel State from colonial times to the present as he explores… Continue Reading Jewish Life in NC–Leonard Rogoff’s book is blogged at ABC 11’s website!
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
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