Category: Political Science

Struggles of Democracy: A Reading List

In the wake of a tumultuous presidential election in the US and as we witness challenges to democracies abroad, we need thoughtful views on democracy and its struggles perhaps now more than ever. UNC Press has always been committed to disseminating excellent work from scholars, writers, and intellectuals across both academic and general audiences and seeks to embody a progressive… Continue Reading Struggles of Democracy: A Reading List

New This Week: October 15th

Another week, another batch of new books publishing. Today we have books spanning topics on segregation scholarships in the US south, teen pop culture at the turn of the twenty-first-century, and North Carolina Politics. Find your next favorite read among these new titles or browse our Hot Off The Press page to see everything new this month. A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners,… Continue Reading New This Week: October 15th

Memorializing 9/11: An Excerpt from “Divided by Terror”

Today, 23 years after the attacks on 9/11, we’re reflecting back to some of the earliest commemorations in New York City with this excerpt from Divided by Terror: American Patriotism after 9/11 by John Bodnar. You can also read a Q&A with John Bodnar and Executive Editor, Debbie Gershenowitz here. New York City The earliest commemorations of the terrorist attacks on… Continue Reading Memorializing 9/11: An Excerpt from “Divided by Terror”

New This Week: “Resistance from the Right”

It’s a new week and another New Books Tuesday! Today Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd is now available wherever books are sold. A thoroughly researched, revelatory political history with abundant relevance for today. . . . Shepherd presents compelling evidence for the ways that these groups, although a minority on campus,… Continue Reading New This Week: “Resistance from the Right”

Faith in Democracy: An Excerpt from “Public Confessions”

The following is an excerpt from Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics by Rebecca L. Davis, now available in paperback wherever books are sold. “A sterling history of mid-20th-century religious conversions and the social issues surrounding them. . . . This impressive work captures a fraught period in American political and religious history with a clear eye… Continue Reading Faith in Democracy: An Excerpt from “Public Confessions”

A New Form of Collective Action? An Excerpt from “Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America”

The following is an excerpt from Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age by Pascal Lupien, which is available now wherever books are sold. This is a thoughtful and impressive study. Lupien sheds important light on twenty-first century Indigenous political dynamics in the Andes, teaching us sobering lessons about the limits of digital technologies and… Continue Reading A New Form of Collective Action? An Excerpt from “Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America”

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Election of Chicago’s first Black Mayor: An Excerpt from “The Multiracial Promise”

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of Harold Washington’s election as the first Black mayor of Chicago. Washington’s victory 40 years ago was unlikely not just because America’s second city was one of the nation’s most racially balkanized but also because it came at a time when Ronald Reagan and other political conservatives seemed resurgent. In The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washington’s… Continue Reading Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Election of Chicago’s first Black Mayor: An Excerpt from “The Multiracial Promise”

The Multiracial Promise: Read an Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from The Multiracial Promise: Harold Washington’s Chicago and the Democratic Struggle in Reagan’s America by Gordon K. Mantler, available wherever books are sold. THEY CALLED IT the promised land. The warmth of other suns. The Black Metropolis. For at least four generations, African Americans flocked to Chicago to escape the living hell of the South’s Jim… Continue Reading The Multiracial Promise: Read an Excerpt

New This Month: March

We’re kicking off our Spring/Summer 2023 season with a stellar line up of new titles! Browse this list to see new books publishing this month, and you can find the full list, including a bunch of new in paperbacks here. The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women: Stories of Landscape and Community in the Mountain South edited by Kami Ahrens “These… Continue Reading New This Month: March

The Making of a Young Intellectual

The following is an excerpt from Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics by Anastasia C. Curwood, available wherever books are sold. The Making of a Young Intellectual Although Shirley Chisholm would eventually be a formidable Black feminist political force, young Shirley St. Hill was ambivalent about pursuing politics during college and her early career. She was inspired by… Continue Reading The Making of a Young Intellectual

From Briggs to Boston, and Back

The following is a guest blog post by Zebulon Vance Miletsky, author of Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle, available now wherever books and e-books are sold. In Clarendon County, South Carolina, a farmer named Levi Pearson stood up with NAACP lawyer Harold Boulware to ask for a school bus. The Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine was… Continue Reading From Briggs to Boston, and Back

Eugene Gordon and the League for the Struggle of Negro Rights in Boston

The following is a guest blog post from Zebulon Vance Miletsky, author of Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle.  Before Busing tells the story of the men and women who struggled and demonstrated to make school desegregation a reality in Boston. It reveals the legal efforts and battles over tactics that played out locally and influenced the… Continue Reading Eugene Gordon and the League for the Struggle of Negro Rights in Boston

Refugees or Asylum-Seekers

The following is an excerpt from Detention Empire: Reagan’s War on Immigrants & the Seeds of Resistance by Kristina Shull, available now everywhere books are sold. Refugees or Asylum-Seekers The massive scope and devastations of the Vietnam War indelibly scarred US political and social life, reshaping subsequent US refugee politics. Growing public divisions over the war also help to explain the seeming paradox… Continue Reading Refugees or Asylum-Seekers

Lula’s Rise From Metalworker to President of Brazil

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva commonly known as “Lula,” has won the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections by 48.4%, much tighter than many had expected. As we await the second round of election please enjoy this excerpt of Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil by John D. French, which was the winner of… Continue Reading Lula’s Rise From Metalworker to President of Brazil

“Fragile Democracy” by James L. Leloudis and Robert R. Korstad: Now Available as an Audiobook

Fragile Democracy: The Struggle over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina by James L. Leloudis and Robert R. Korstad is now available as an audiobook via Libro.fm, Audible, Kobo, and Hoopla. Praise for Fragile Democracy: “A researched look at North Carolina’s fraught relationship with race and voting. By looking back, [Leloudis and Korstad] create a framework for the future.”—IndyWeek “As Triangle-area professors… Continue Reading “Fragile Democracy” by James L. Leloudis and Robert R. Korstad: Now Available as an Audiobook

Detroit and Toxic Debt

Today marks eight years since the beginning of the ongoing Flint water contamination crisis. The following is an excerpt from Toxic Debt: An Environmental Justice History of Detroit by Josiah Rector, officially on sale tomorrow wherever ebooks and books are sold. Between 2014 and 2019, the City of Detroit shut off water for over 141,000 residential accounts, denying more than… Continue Reading Detroit and Toxic Debt

Built on Women’s Bodies

The following is an excerpt from Anne Gray Fischer’s The Streets Belong To Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification. Police power was built on women’s bodies. Men, especially Black men, often stand in as the ultimate symbol of the mass incarceration crisis in the United States. Women are treated as marginal, if not overlooked altogether, in… Continue Reading Built on Women’s Bodies

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Susan Garrett, our Sales Manager. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any of these books,… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Susan Garrett)

Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Cate Hodorowicz)

Happy Women’s History Month! In celebration of this historical month, we’ll be sharing reading lists curated by our staff featuring all authors who identify as women. Today we’re sharing a list from Cate Hodorowicz, one of our newly promoted Editors. Click here to see the previously shared lists and learn more about how Women’s History Month came about. If you’re interested in purchasing any… Continue Reading Women’s History Month 2022 Reading List (Curated by Cate Hodorowicz)

Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development

The following is an excerpt from Cedric J. Robinson’s Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. In this ambitious work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand Black people’s history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European… Continue Reading Racial Capitalism: The Nonobjective Character of Capitalist Development