The following is a guide to Bald Head Island written in the form of a children’s book: One summer we took the ferry to an island. We stayed in a little house on the beach and watched the ocean move. We put on suntan lotion and laid towels out on the sand. We built castles that ceased to stand and… Continue Reading Tar Heel Trek: Brunswick County
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
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
With a title alluding to the complicated past of gender and sex, Mary P. Ryan’s Mysteries of Sex: Tracing Women and Men through American History gives us a thoughtful and thorough examination of the long debated battle over the differences between men and women. The question of how the dividing line between male and female is drawn—and repeatedly redrawn—over the… Continue Reading Mary P. Ryan discusses her book,”Mysteries of Sex: Tracing Women and Men Through American History on ROROTOKO
Today, The New York Times ran Jones County, Miss. – Civil War Fires Up Literary Shootout, a report by Michael Cieply about two conflicting books and a yet-to-be greenlighted Hollywood movie. At the center of everything lies Newton Knight, a white, landowning, Confederate deserter living deep in Mississippi, who famously tried to secede and form the Free State of Jones.… Continue Reading Web 2.0, Text Wars, and Building the Better Book: How the Internet Changes Everything We Do
In the past month, an occurrence in the suburbs of Philadelphia has turned into a national story. After a group of minority children were disinvited by a private swimming pool’s administration, community members were outraged. Senator Arlen Spector said that if allegations were true, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was likely violated. Now, the United States Justice Department plans… Continue Reading Swimming Pool Historian Responds to Philadelphia Incident
UNC Press author Bland Simpson has made his name on a myriad of talents, one of which is his superb ability to write about North Carolina’s coastline. Since 1993, UNC Press has published five of Simpson’s books about the area, with the most recent work–The Inner Islands–scheduled for paperback publication in the spring of 2010. I mention Simpson because his… Continue Reading David Stick 1919-2009
For many, today means the last day at the office before a long weekend goes into effect for Independence Day. However, Civil War buffs and historians recognize July 2nd as day two of another important event in American history – the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. In the three hours of fighting on this evening 146 years ago, roughly 10,000… Continue Reading Gettysburg Remembered
Reunited and it feels so good; okay, so maybe 1868 wasn’t as smooth as a pop song. There were a few kinks to work out. How would secessionist states regain self-governing status? How would newly freedmen be integrated into southern society? What would become of the leaders of the Confederacy? Reconstruction proved to be one of the most trying times… Continue Reading Today in history: Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union
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
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
Continuing along the North Carolina piedmont, Davidson County is worthy of a pitstop. Founded in 1822 and named for Revolutionary War General William Lee Davidson, Davidson County is home to many unique and historical sites. North Carolina is well known for it’s barbecue, but none is quite like the kind you get in Lexington–defining its own category, “Lexington-style barbecue.” Home… Continue Reading Tar Heel Trek: Davidson County
Judith Walzer Leavitt, who guest blogged for us yesterday, will be appearing on WUNC’s The State of Things today with Frank Stasio, discussing the evolving role of fathers in the childbirth process. The show starts at noon (eastern) and Judy’s segment will begin around 12:40. You can listen to the show online or download a podcast after it’s archived at… Continue Reading Judith Walzer Leavitt on The State of Things today
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!
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
From the Washington Post: The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that former attorney general John D. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III may not be sued by a Pakistani man who was seized in the United States after the 2001 terrorist attacks and who alleged harsh treatment because of his religion and ethnicity. The court ruled 5 to 4… Continue Reading Eric Muller discusses Supreme Court ruling on profiling and detentions immediately following 9/11
. . . but I won’t do that. So, maybe (?) you’ve never greeted your spouse at the door wearing nothing but Saran Wrap. But what would you do if you thought it would help your relationship? What would you expect your partner to do to keep you around? Kristin Celello, author of Making Marriage Work and a guest blogger… Continue Reading I would do aaaanything for you
Last summer Rachel blogged about a new Mellon-funded project aimed at sharing scholarship on the civil rights movement. Last month, Publishing the Long Civil Rights Movement (LCRM) sponsored a wildly successful conference here at UNC to discuss the project and possibilities for scholarly collaboration. LCRM director Sylvia Miller described the conference this way: All of the sessions made substantial efforts… Continue Reading The Long Civil Rights Movement conference videos now online
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’
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