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December 3, 2010

Remembering Allan Berube, historian of gays in the military

I currently have a live feed of the Senate Committee Hearing on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell open in another window on what would have been Allan Bérubé’s 64th birthday. Despite wide support of DADT’s repeal by President Obama and other high-ranking officials, Senator McCain and other Republican leaders are challenging any change in the policy before the year’s end, expressing… Continue Reading Remembering Allan Berube, historian of gays in the military

Categories American History/Current Events/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Labor Studies/Military Studies/Politics/UNC Press Authors
November 8, 2010

Marc Stein: Justice Kennedy and the Future of Same-Sex Marriage

We welcome a guest post from Marc Stein, author of Sexual Injustice: Supreme Court Decisions from Griswold to Roe.  Beyond examining liberal rulings that deal with birth control, abortion, interracial marriage, and obscenity, Sexual Injustice also offers an in-depth account of the profoundly conservative ruling on homosexuality in Boutilier. In a guest post last month, he traced gay rights legal… Continue Reading Marc Stein: Justice Kennedy and the Future of Same-Sex Marriage

Categories Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Current Events/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Law / Legal History/Politics
November 3, 2010

Southern Gateways: The best in southern reading from UNC Press

One of the strengths of UNC Press is our commitment to publishing first-rate books about the region in which we live. From college hoops to environmental history, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, from the coast to the hills, our books about the South educate and entertain readers within the region and beyond. We’ve recently updated our… Continue Reading Southern Gateways: The best in southern reading from UNC Press

Categories African American History/American History/Art / Architecture/Biography / Autobiography/Biology/Birds & Birding/Civil War/Cooking / Food/Craft/folklore/Gardening/Gender Studies/Hiking/Hurricanes/Jewish Studies/Juvenile/Latino Studies/Literature/Military History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Nature/North Carolina/Politics/Reference/Southern Studies/Sports/Travel/UNC Press News/Weather
October 14, 2010

American Democracy and the Challenge of Globalization

The midterm election campaign now approaching the home stretch has brought with it striking but fairly empty calls to action–from the Tea Party frenzy over fiscal virtue to a president exhorting his base with the banal promise of “moving America forward.” But this and all the other lamentable features of our democracy, it is worth stressing, are nothing new. Many… Continue Reading American Democracy and the Challenge of Globalization

Categories American History/Current Events/Economics/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Politics/Public Policy
October 11, 2010

Hannah Gill: Immigrant Youth and the High Stakes of Higher Education

As we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we welcome a guest post from Hannah Gill, author of The Latino Migrant Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State. In the book, Gill offers North Carolinians from all walks of life a better understanding of their Latino neighbors, bringing light instead of heat to local and national debates… Continue Reading Hannah Gill: Immigrant Youth and the High Stakes of Higher Education

Categories Civil Rights/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Latino Studies/North Carolina/Politics
October 1, 2010

Highlights from First Amendment Day 2010

UNC celebrated its second annual First Amendment Day yesterday, and as predicted, it was an absolute smasheroo. The day began with the weather exercising its freedom of expression with sheets of rain, but only a few of the events were shifted inside before the drizzling tapered off. The events kicked off with a planting of a symbolic Liberty Tree next… Continue Reading Highlights from First Amendment Day 2010

Categories Events/Law / Legal History/Local Indy Booksellers/Media Studies/Politics/Public Policy/The Book Biz
September 30, 2010

Katie Bowler on the Need to Respect Books That Other Cultures Value

Continuing our special focus on First Amendment Day today, we welcome the following guest post from someone situated at the intersection of law and literature. Poet Katie Bowler places her own experience with book burning in the context of the history of books as weapons used in attempts to devalue the beliefs of others.–ellen The recent threat by a fringe-element… Continue Reading Katie Bowler on the Need to Respect Books That Other Cultures Value

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Politics/Religion
September 30, 2010

William Marshall on the Rights and Responsibilities of the First Amendment

As the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus celebrates First Amendment Day today, we welcome a guest post from legal scholar and professor William Marshall, who teaches at the UNC Law School. He reminds us that with our freedom from government intrusion comes the responsibility for public engagement.–ellen Humorist, social critic, and cartoonist Walt Kelly once famously wrote,… Continue Reading William Marshall on the Rights and Responsibilities of the First Amendment

Categories Guest Bloggers/Law / Legal History/Politics
September 27, 2010

Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

As we kick off Banned Books Week, we welcome a guest post today from someone committed to the freedom to read. Erica Eisdorfer is more than just a booklover, she’s a novelist and a bookseller, too, and she’s had first-hand experience on the censorship front.–ellen Banned Books Week 2010 is the 29th annual celebration of our freedom to read. The… Continue Reading Erica Eisdorfer: Reader, Writer, Bookseller, Defender of Your Freedom to Read

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Local Indy Booksellers/Politics/Public Policy/The Book Biz
September 20, 2010

Cuba Scholar Lou Perez Says End the Embargo

Renowned scholar of Cuba Louis A. Perez Jr. makes the case at CNN.com for an end to the failed U.S. policy of embargo against Cuba. He begins: In April 2009, the White House released a presidential memorandum declaring that democracy and human rights in Cuba were “national interests of the United States.” Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela repeated the… Continue Reading Cuba Scholar Lou Perez Says End the Embargo

Categories American History/Cuba/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Politics/Public Policy
September 16, 2010

Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

We welcome a guest post today from Andrew J. Kirkendall, author of Paulo Freire and the Cold War Politics of Literacy. In his political biography of Freire (1921-97), a native of Brazil’s impoverished northeast who developed adult literacy training techniques that remain influential today, Kirkendall gives new perspectives on the history of the Cold War, the meanings of radicalism, and… Continue Reading Paulo Freire, Lula, and the Next Step for Brazil

Categories Biography / Autobiography/Economics/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Politics/Sociology
September 10, 2010

A Middle East Policy in Deep Denial

Denial is a well known defense mechanism that keeps unpleasant realities at bay. U.S. policymakers seem well practiced in this common coping device. Heaven knows they have good reason, no matter which direction of the Middle East they turn. Afghanistan seems right now to occasion the deepest denials because the realities are the grimmest. Two reports by the London-based International… Continue Reading A Middle East Policy in Deep Denial

Categories Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Middle Eastern Studies/Politics
August 19, 2010

General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Barack Obama’s Afghanistan commanders are something else. First, they promoted a highly debatable counter-insurgency strategy. Then, despite the numerous and cogent contemporary critiques, they got the president to buy into their particular brand of wishful thinking, and they got from him the additional troops supposedly needed for success. They have since failed to deliver. There are no convincing signs of… Continue Reading General McChrystal, General Petraeus, and General Confusion

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
August 5, 2010

Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Developments over the last month or so have put the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan under a dark cloud. The McChrystal affair and the WikiLeaks revelations are symptomatic of deeper troubles: the rapid bankruptcy of counterinsurgency, a surge in U.S. casualties, the persistently problematic role of Pakistan, the continued immobility of the Karzai regime, the sluggish progress in training Afghan forces,… Continue Reading Vietnam War Lessons: Never Too Late to Learn

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Military Studies/Politics
July 29, 2010

Loveman’s ‘No Higher Law’ gets the page 99 test

The “Page 99 Test” takes its name and inspiration from Ford Madox Ford, who said,”Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” As part of the Campaign for the American Reader, Marshal Zeringue has built a blog based on the idea, asking authors to turn to page 99 of… Continue Reading Loveman’s ‘No Higher Law’ gets the page 99 test

Categories American History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Politics
July 28, 2010

Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

We welcome a guest post today from Jennifer Brier, author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Responses to the AIDS Crisis. When the Obama administration announced a new HIV/AIDS strategy, we asked Brier to unpack the news and help give historical perspective to the new plan.–ellen Reading President Obama’s new HIV/AIDS strategy, released on July 13, 2010, was alternately exciting and… Continue Reading Obama’s HIV/AIDS Strategy: Real Change or Pocket Change?

Categories Current Events/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine/Politics/Public Policy
July 22, 2010

To Forge a Better NAACP

What happened to the NAACP? It’s odd to think that the venerable and historic National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been reduced to a talking point in the national media cycle this week. They received national attention in June when the Los Angeles chapter lodged a protest against a Hallmark card with a recorded message that they… Continue Reading To Forge a Better NAACP

Categories African American Studies/American History/Blair L. M. Kelley/Civil Rights/Education/North Carolina/Politics
July 19, 2010

On the Iroquois Lacrosse Team, Sovereignty, and Sport

Last week we watched with interest as a significant story unfolded with the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team. As they attempted to travel to the UK for international competition, they were entangled in a visa dispute. Although the team traveled internationally just a couple years ago using their Iroquois passports, British authorities refused to admit them to the UK this time… Continue Reading On the Iroquois Lacrosse Team, Sovereignty, and Sport

Categories Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Politics/Sports
July 2, 2010

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter. Continue Reading The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

Categories American History/Current Events/Guest Bloggers/Michael H. Hunt/Military History/Politics
June 22, 2010

Feminism and the Republican Party: Equating Female with Feminist?

Until very recently, the term “feminist” was used by those on the right only as a negative descriptor of someone who would invariably be a political foe. Devoted feminists have struggled to set the word free from the negative connotations and reclaim the label as a source of pride, with mixed results, especially among younger generations of independent women whose… Continue Reading Feminism and the Republican Party: Equating Female with Feminist?

Categories African American Studies/American History/Current Events/Gender Studies/Politics/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies