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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
April 5, 2010

His Accidency

A Virginian, whose father was friends with Thomas Jefferson An accomplished orator, known for his sweet voice and famously  aquiline nose Fathered fifteen children Named his estate on the James River “Sherwood Forest” after the setting of the Robin Hood tales, because he saw himself as a political renegade and outlaw Voted for Virginia’s secession and was a representative-elect to… Continue Reading His Accidency

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War
March 31, 2010

National Women’s History Month: Final Installment

Since March is coming to an end, and April is going to be a busy month here on the Press Blog, this is going to be the last post in our series of books for National Women’s History Month. So far, we’ve covered some important books on topics like women at war, the role of books in the lives of… Continue Reading National Women’s History Month: Final Installment

Categories American History/American Studies/Gender Studies/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
March 30, 2010

Improving the Health of North Carolinians, Then and Now

Today we welcome a guest post from William W. McLendon, M.D., coauthor, with Floyd W. Denny Jr. and William B. Blythe, of Bettering the Health of the People: W. Reece Berryhill, the UNC School of Medicine, and the North Carolina Good Health Movement. The book explores the history of North Carolina’s postwar effort to provide health care for all N.C.… Continue Reading Improving the Health of North Carolinians, Then and Now

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/North Carolina/Public Policy
March 29, 2010

Up to Date in Kansas City

We welcome a guest post today from Joshua M. Dunn, author of Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins. Dunn’s book explores the 1987 case that became the federal court’s most expensive attempt at school desegregation: Judge Russell Clark mandated tax increases to help pay for improvements to the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in an effort to lure… Continue Reading Up to Date in Kansas City

Categories African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Current Events/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Law / Legal History
March 26, 2010

The legacy of North Carolina’s eugenics program

The cover story for this week’s Independent Weekly (on newsstands in the Triangle from 3/24/10 to 3/30/10), discusses the victims of North Carolina’s 20th-century eugenics program and the current campaign for reparations to people (mostly poor black women) who were forcibly sterilized. As of March 1, 2010, the state has established an organization to finally bring justice for surviving victims.… Continue Reading The legacy of North Carolina’s eugenics program

Categories African American History/American History/Civil Rights/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/History/North Carolina/Public Policy/Women's Studies
March 25, 2010

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: March 25, 1911

As a continuation of our series of posts on National Women’s History Month, today’s post will be about an event from 99 years ago today–the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. While horrific–146 workers, mostly poor Italian, German, and Jewish women between the ages of eight and twenty perished–the fire at Triangle Shirtwaist holds an important place in… Continue Reading The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: March 25, 1911

Categories American History/Gender Studies/History/Labor Studies/Women's Studies
March 18, 2010

National Women’s History Month: By the Book

Two weeks ago, I blogged here about National Women’s History Month, making the first in a series of posts about new and recent books available from UNC Press focusing on the lives of women. That entry featured books that looked at the lives of American women in the Civil War and women returning from tours of Afghanistan and Iraq in… Continue Reading National Women’s History Month: By the Book

Categories American History/American Studies/Gender Studies/History/Literature/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies
March 17, 2010

William Bauer on writing American Indian history from home

William J. Bauer Jr. (Wailacki and Concow, and an enrolled member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes) is author of the new book We Were All Like Migrant Workers Here: Work, Community, and Memory on California’s Round Valley Reservation, 1850-1941.  The federally recognized Round Valley Indian Tribes are a small, confederated people whose members today come from twelve indigenous California… Continue Reading William Bauer on writing American Indian history from home

Categories American History/History/Labor Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/UNC Press Authors
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 10, 2010

Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

Today we celebrate the birthday of Lillian Wald (1867-1940), founder of Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side as well as the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Wald was a second-generation German Jewish immigrant who developed close associations with Jewish New York even as she consistently dismissed claims that her work emerged from a fundamentally Jewish calling.… Continue Reading Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies
March 9, 2010

Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

We love it when new UNC Press books seem to be in conversation with other books of the moment.  Take Patti Smith’s acclaimed new memoir, Just Kids (HarperCollins 2010), which offers an inside look at the punk pioneer’s artistic influences and collaborations, including Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Shepard, and Fred “Sonic” Smith–all men. However, right there on… Continue Reading Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

Categories American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Interviews/Music/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
March 8, 2010

Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

Have you heard? Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has sponsored a bill to replace U.S. Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan. In an op-ed for the LA Times, Grant biographer Joan Waugh offers a brief history lesson in defense of the Union general and 18th President of the United States and cautions against further erosion of Grant’s legacy. An… Continue Reading Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/Current Events/History/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 5, 2010

Battle Without End: Raúl Ramos on the politics of Texas history

Today brings us a guest post from Raúl Ramos, author of Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861. In his book, Ramos introduces a new model for the transnational history of the United States as he focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with the year of Mexican independence. Ramos explores… Continue Reading Battle Without End: Raúl Ramos on the politics of Texas history

Categories American History/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press Authors
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
March 1, 2010

Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

We welcome a guest post today from S. Scott Rohrer, author of Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865. Popular literature and frontier studies stress that Americans moved west to farm or to seek a new beginning. In Wandering Souls, Rohrer argues that Protestant migrants in early America relocated in search of salvation, Christian community, reform, or all three. In… Continue Reading Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

Categories American History/Genealogy/Guest Bloggers/Religion/UNC Press Authors
February 24, 2010

To Right These Wrongs: A Groundbreaking Project

The first few books from UNC Press’ Spring|Summer 2010 catalog made it to bookshelves this month, and many more will be debuting in the coming months. One of the books we’re excited to publish, in partnership with Publishing the Long Civil Rights Movement, is Robert R. Korstad and James L. Leloudis’ To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and… Continue Reading To Right These Wrongs: A Groundbreaking Project

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Appalachian Studies/Civil Rights/Film/History/North Carolina/Public Policy/Southern Studies/UNC Press News
February 22, 2010

How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

This is the question Susan Reverby considers in a post over at Wonders & Marvels. The author of, most recently, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy writes: In my most recent book, I had to explain: why did the doctors do it? Sometimes it is easy to answer this: all the men were black and poor, and… Continue Reading How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

Categories African American Studies/American History/Health / Medicine/History/UNC Press Authors
February 19, 2010

David Ruggles, Abolitionist and Mentor to Abolitionists

This week is the very good time to talk about Graham Hodges’ new book David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City–for at least two reasons.  The first of these is that Hodges was interviewed by Eric Foner (DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University) as part of the Lincoln Series at the… Continue Reading David Ruggles, Abolitionist and Mentor to Abolitionists

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Civil War/History/UNC Press News
February 18, 2010

Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Early 1861 marked the only time in our nation’s history that it had two presidents, both calling for a return to the republic born in the American Revolution. On February 18, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America; on March 4, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States of… Continue Reading Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Categories American History/Civil War/UNC Press News