Category: History

September 10, 2008

Today in History: Gunsmoke Premiers on Television

It’s a Saturday night in mid-September, 1955. Dinner dishes have been cleared away, people in their comfortable homes are settling in for the evening. For entertainment, some turn to their trusty radio, still not sure about that expensive picture-box, the television. Those with television sets aren’t too sure this new-fangled thing is all that great, either. Skeptically, many of them… Continue Reading Today in History: Gunsmoke Premiers on Television

American History/American Studies/Women's Studies

September 9, 2008

Guest Blogger Catherine Rymph on Sarah Palin and Her Role in History

Because I teach a course on U.S. Women’s Political History and wrote a book about women in the Republican Party, a lot of people these days have been popping into my office or popping up on email to ask what I think of Sarah Palin‘s nomination for vice-president. As a citizen, I have my opinions (as, it seems, does everyone).… Continue Reading Guest Blogger Catherine Rymph on Sarah Palin and Her Role in History

American History/American Studies/Current Events/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Politics/Women's Studies

September 8, 2008

Gustav Update from New Orleans

The following is an email sent on 4 Sep 2008 by UNC Press author Lance Hill to his mailing list of friends. Lance, as some of you may remember from my entry on the anniversary of Katrina, is not only an acclaimed author, but also a professor at Tulane University and a long-time New Orleans resident. We present this message… Continue Reading Gustav Update from New Orleans

American History/Guest Bloggers/Hurricanes/Public Policy

August 30, 2008

Hurricane Katrina: August 29, 2005

When Hurricane Katrina moved northwest through the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the Gulf Coast of the US in late August of 2005 I had only the briefest of connections to the city: my parents had attended a convention there in the late 60s, a friend I had grown up with lived there with his wife right after graduating from the… Continue Reading Hurricane Katrina: August 29, 2005

American History/History/Travel/UNC Press News

August 28, 2008

Political Conventions: Part I

Perhaps you’ve noticed there’s been some politicking going on lately? It may have been too subtle for you to have noticed, especially if you live somewhere without radio, television or internet access (although, come to think of it, that would make reading this blog a bit difficult), but, indeed, it’s been going on for months (and months and months). But… Continue Reading Political Conventions: Part I

African American History/American History/American Studies/History/Politics

August 27, 2008

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We have more than our share of serious baseball fans here at the UNC Press. Personally, I grew up a Washington Senators fan who turned his allegiances to the Baltimore Orioles after the Senators left town in the 1971. Our Associate Director here at the Press is also an Orioles fan as well as a fan of our own UNC… Continue Reading Take Me Out to the Ball Game

History/North Carolina/Sports

August 13, 2008

Early Buzz for Lou Perez

Have you seen the gorgeous jacket (designed by Rich Hendel) for Louis Perez’s new book? The New Yorker Books Department has, and they’re digging it! (There should be some joke here about judging a book, etc., but I’m going to say let’s just make those jokes quietly to ourselves and move on.) Lou Perez is one of the top historians… Continue Reading Early Buzz for Lou Perez

American History/Cuba/History

August 12, 2008

Charles Irons on Today’s State of Things

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called 11 a.m. Sunday mornings “the most segregated hour of the week.” Even today, integrated churches are the exception, not the rule. But that wasn’t always the case. In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together. In The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in… Continue Reading Charles Irons on Today’s State of Things

African American History/African American Studies/American History/History/Podcasts/Religion

August 11, 2008

Gilberto Gil Decides to Stick with Music

Brazilian musician and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil has decided to leave his government post to focus his attention on his music career. When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tapped Gil to be Culture Minister in 2003, Gil was only the second black person to serve in Brazil’s cabinet. The government’s loss now, though, is music’s gain. Gil is one… Continue Reading Gilberto Gil Decides to Stick with Music

Current Events/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Music

Today in History: Hiroshima

The world witnessed the first wartime use of an atomic weapon on this day 63 years ago when the United States bombed Hiroshima. Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital at the time. He survived the bombing and helped to hold Hiroshima together in the aftermath. Amazingly, he also managed to record daily entries in a personal… Continue Reading Today in History: Hiroshima

American History/Asian Studies/Biography / Autobiography/History/Military History/Military Studies

Weekend Roadtrip #7: Roanoke and Ocracoke

Sunset on the Ferry (photo by Chor Ip via Creative Commons) Don’t worry, just because I had another post this morning doesn’t mean I forgot that this is Thursday, the highly anticipated day of the weekend roadtrip post! Fear not, dear Tar Heel roadtrippers, we’ve got a special “oke”-alicious lineup for this last segment of our Beach Book Grab Bag… Continue Reading Weekend Roadtrip #7: Roanoke and Ocracoke

American History/History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/North Carolina/Theatre/Travel

New Project Aims to “Publish the Long Civil Rights Movement”

Cool activist-esque things to do through the years: early 1960s: register African American voters in the South; late 1960s: protest Vietnam War/attend large-scale concert in upstate New York; 1970s: burn bra while reading Erica Jong; 1990s: wear a red ribbon on an expensive tuxedo; 2008: get involved in the electoral process. Considering the upcoming election season, significant change seems possible,… Continue Reading New Project Aims to “Publish the Long Civil Rights Movement”

African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil Rights/Education/Environmental Studies/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Health / Medicine/History/UNC Press News/Women's Studies

Exploring Torpedo Junction

Yesterday’s All Things Considered on NPR aired a story about recent efforts by marine preservationists to survey and document sunken German U-boats off Cape Hatteras, NC. Adam Hochberg talks to both a former German sailor and a local Hatteras resident who recalls hearing the torpedoes from the u-boats attacking American vessels. This is the history in which UNCP’s Taffy of… Continue Reading Exploring Torpedo Junction

American History/History/North Carolina/Podcasts

Today in history: the 14th Amendment takes effect

On July 28, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect, after the required 28 states had ratified the bill that was propsed in 1866. The amendment guaranteed due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves. This was one of three “Reconstruction Amendments” meant to restructure the U.S. from a land divided… Continue Reading Today in history: the 14th Amendment takes effect

African American History/African American Studies/American History/History

Hear Spencie Love on today’s State of Things

Last week, the American Medical Association issued a formal apology for its history of discrimination against black doctors. Today on The State of Things, Frank Stasio and guests will discuss race and health care – particularly, this history of racial discrimination and its ongoing effects, including under-representation of black doctors in the health care profession and the widening of health… Continue Reading Hear Spencie Love on today’s State of Things

African American History/African American Studies/Civil Rights/Health / Medicine/History/North Carolina/Podcasts

Today in History: John Scopes found guilty

On July 21, 1925, John Thomas Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution. Generations later, the teaching of evolution is standard and creationism (in the form of Intelligent Design) is the new challenger. Michael Lienesch, author of In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement, examines… Continue Reading Today in History: John Scopes found guilty

American History/History/Religion

California Dreams

In a recent segment on Berkeley and Watts in their “California Dreaming” series, NPR’s syndicated program Day to Day featured Kirse Granat May, author of Golden State, Golden Youth: The California Image in Popular Culture, 1955-1966. [May appears around the 2:20 mark in the podcast.]

African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Podcasts

Wall Street fiction(?)

With the real-life dramas unfolding on Wall Street these days, it’s only a matter of time before we witness a bumper crop of novels and thrillers set in the high-stakes financial world. David Zimmerman has written about the connections between novels and markets in an earlier period of American history

American History/Business/Current Events/Economics/History/Literature

Weekend Roadtrip #3: Pirates and shipwrecks and ghosts! Oh my!

Continuing the Beach Book Grab Bag series that began last week, this week’s picks are all about things that go splash in the night. North Carolina’s coastline slips into some treacherous waters — making them a perfect hunting spot for the pirates of yore who preyed on stranded ships. Six books with some spine-tingling tales of coastal haunts after the… Continue Reading Weekend Roadtrip #3: Pirates and shipwrecks and ghosts! Oh my!

American History/History/North Carolina/Travel

As we consider the founding fathers

With all the talk this week about the First Amendment, I can’t neglect to mention the award-winning George Mason, Forgotten Founder, by Jeff Broadwater. Mason was one of the country’s earliest champions of civil liberties as the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. In fact, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Mason pushed for such a bill of rights… Continue Reading As we consider the founding fathers

American History/Biography / Autobiography/Politics