Category: Politics

Lloyd Kramer: Why the History of Nationalism Matters in a Global Age, Part 1

Lloyd Kramer discusses the omnipresence of nationalism and its manifestation in contemporary society, from political campaigns to national identity. Continue Reading Lloyd Kramer: Why the History of Nationalism Matters in a Global Age, Part 1

Rebecca de Schweinitz: More Than Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

Rebecca de Schweinitz looks at the many people who share Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision as we approach the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington. Continue Reading Rebecca de Schweinitz: More Than Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream

Michael H. Hunt: How to think about the end of the “American Century”

Revisiting Henry Luce’s essay on American ascendancy, Michael H. Hunt considers the current era of American decline. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: How to think about the end of the “American Century”

Encouraging selfishness on the reservation: An excerpt from Cahill’s Federal Fathers & Mothers

The commissioner of Indian affairs urged that “[the Indian] must be imbued with the exalting egotism of American civilization so that he will say ‘I’ instead of ‘We’ and ‘This is mine’ instead of ‘This is ours.'” Continue Reading Encouraging selfishness on the reservation: An excerpt from Cahill’s Federal Fathers & Mothers

Michael H. Hunt: Obama on the Middle East: Let’s Pretend

Obama’s presentation lacks the first element of good policy. It fails to honestly confront the main trends and defining features of the problem confronting us. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: Obama on the Middle East: Let’s Pretend

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 57 years ago today

Fifty-seven years have passed since the ruling in this monumental Supreme Court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and found laws for “separate but equal” black schools and white schools to be unconstitutional. While this decision was a huge move in the right direction in the Civil Rights movement, it was met with resistance by many, especially sending shockwaves through… Continue Reading Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 57 years ago today

Michael Hunt: Questions that the Libya Intervention Begs

It’s ok to feel conflicted over the Libyan intervention. You’re not alone — and you have good reason. The U.S. response to the uprising against the Gaddafi regime raises a welter of issues. Is oil driving decisions? Why the inconsistency if not hypocrisy of acting in Libya but not Gaza? Is Libya just another case of U.S. muscle flexing or… Continue Reading Michael Hunt: Questions that the Libya Intervention Begs

EPIC SALE TIME!!

It’s EPIC SALE TIME! Over 700 UNC Press books are on sale! Read more about the huge deals here. Continue Reading EPIC SALE TIME!!

Michael H. Hunt: Caught in Contradictions: The United States and the Middle East

The popular uprisings of the sort now spreading across North Africa to the Persian Gulf were hard to anticipate—but the American response wasn’t. U.S. history is filled with moments like the present one when upheavals abroad generated great hopes for the advance of freedom. Those moments have also evoked deep anxieties rooted in a suspicion that most peoples reaching for… Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: Caught in Contradictions: The United States and the Middle East

Lisa Levenstein on Balancing Budgets and Public Employees

The recent events concerning public sector workers in Wisconsin have brought a great deal of reflecting and attention to the ways in which the government, at both the state and national levels, spends and saves money. UNC Press author Lisa Levenstein, with economics doctoral student Jason Brent, wrote an Op-ed in this past Sunday’s Greensboro News & Record on the… Continue Reading Lisa Levenstein on Balancing Budgets and Public Employees

Chris Myers Asch on one of George Washington’s greatest contributions

Happy Presidents’ Day everyone! Today’s federal holiday treat is an article at History News Network by author Chris Myers Asch.  He muses on how our first President has saved the United States from needing to overthrow any leaders.  In light of the recent events in Egypt, Asch discusses how stepping down peacefully after two terms (and the eventual passing of… Continue Reading Chris Myers Asch on one of George Washington’s greatest contributions

Kimberley Brown: Failed States, Global Security, and the Case of Tunisia

We welcome a guest post today from Kimberley Brown, coauthor (with Shawn Smallman) of Introduction to International and Global Studies. Their new book is a thematic introduction to the intellectual and structural underpinnings of globalization. In this post, Brown considers recent events in Tunisia in the context of how Americans are used to thinking about threats to global security.–ellen Students… Continue Reading Kimberley Brown: Failed States, Global Security, and the Case of Tunisia

Civil Rights Memory: Haley Barbour and the New ‘Lost Cause’

Just before our holiday hiatus we were following the story of Mississippi governor Haley Barbour’s comments to the Weekly Standard about how smoothly the desegregation of schools went in his hometown of Yazoo City. It was his defense of the role of the white Citizens’ Councils (which he later recanted) that prompted a lot of backlash. I was happy to… Continue Reading Civil Rights Memory: Haley Barbour and the New ‘Lost Cause’