Our 90th anniversary sale now includes selected titles in Civil War, literary studies, women’s studies, religious studies, African American history, and art/architecture/craft. Continue Reading Spring sale now includes Civil War & Literary Studies
Our 90th anniversary sale expands this month to include select books in women’s studies and art/architecture/craft now 50% off. Free shipping on orders of $75+. Continue Reading Our Spring Sale grows: books in women’s studies and art now half off!
It is Cairo on a sweltering afternoon, and the faithful are streaming into a beautiful, simple mosque. The Friday (jumu‘a) prayers are about to begin. In the courtyard, people take their ablutions in the cool fountain water that provides welcome relief from the heat of the Cairene afternoon. A group of women sitting close together is silently reciting the Qur’ān. An old man, his face kissed gently by time, is sitting easily upright with eyes closed, meditating on the beautiful names of God. Two old friends, both returning to the city after years of travel, trade, and learning, are greeting each other with a tender embrace. A young man, hands raised in supplication, is softly murmuring his deepest yearnings into the hearing of the omniscient One. As the call to prayer is given, a hush falls over the crowd, with each person repairing to his or her private supplications before the sermon begins. Continue Reading Excerpt: Sufi Narratives of Intimacy, by Saʿdiyya Shaikh
Nina Simone—the High Priestess of Soul to some, a fierce advocate of racial justice to others—would seem to be an unlikely interpreter of Israeli folk songs. Yet in 1962, as her career was taking off, Simone incorporated “Eretz Zavat Chalev” (“The Land of Milk and Honey”) into her repertoire. It proved to be an early example of her eclectic musical taste and one of her initial steps in moving beyond the traditional jazz combo–piano, bass, and drums–an evolution that would cement her place among world-renowned artists.
Continue Reading Nadine Cohodas: Nina Simone and Israeli Folk Music
A historical and literary approach at least offers the prospect of a fair-minded and reasonable approach to other people’s religions, which is why such a method seems both attractive and necessary today. Continue Reading Excerpt: How to Read the Qur’an, by Carl W. Ernst
In celebration of our 90th birthday, we’ll feature new disciplines reduced 50% each month. Save now on books in African American History and Religious Studies. Continue Reading UNC Press celebrates 90 years, and the gifts are for you!
As a new documentary film about the Loving v. Virginia case appears, we look back to Fay Botham’s book for some of the religious and legal aspects of the case. Includes an excerpt from the book. Continue Reading Learn about and learn from Loving v Virginia
From Matthew F. Jacobs’ book ‘Imagining the Middle East: Building American Foreign Policy, 1918-1967,’ how consumer culture influenced U.S. foreign policy. Continue Reading Matthew F. Jacobs: Imagining the Middle East – An Excerpt
Historian Marvin McAllister explores the racial and mythical dimensions of casting a black British actor in the role of a Norse god in the recent film THOR. Continue Reading Marvin McAllister: Idris Elba ‘Multi-Levels’ THOR: Norse Mythology Meets Yoruba Cosmology
It’s been a while since we’ve put any of our books to the Page 99 Test. Let’s make up for lost time, shall we? Just as a refresher, the Page 99 Test follows Ford Madox Ford’s suggestion to “open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” Read on to… Continue Reading It’s time for our Spring ’11 titles to take the Page 99 Test–I hope they studied.
David Stowe reflects on meeting and interviewing Marsha Stevens-Pino, a popular singer in the 1970s Jesus Movement who was ostracized for coming out as a lesbian. Continue Reading David W. Stowe: Coming Out of the Jesus Movement: A Conversation with Marsha Stevens-Pino
We welcome a guest post today from David Stowe, author of the forthcoming book No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism. In his cultural history of evangelical Christianity and popular music, Stowe demonstrates how mainstream rock of the 1960s and 1970s has influenced conservative evangelical Christianity through the development of Christian pop music.… Continue Reading David Stowe: Larry Norman, the Bad Boy of Christian Rock
Joe Perry’s Christmas in Germany and Nancy Smith Thomas’ Moravian Christmas in the South provide insight into Christmas customs and traditions. Continue Reading How Christmas in Germany will forever change my understanding of The Nutcracker
We welcome a guest post this Hanukkah from Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South , which we’ve just released in paperback and which the Chicago Tribune called “fascinating reading mixed with delicious recipes.” In this post Ferris recalls her childhood as a religious minority in her Arkansas neighborhood. You can catch her… Continue Reading Marcie Cohen Ferris: A Happy Southern Hanukkah
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
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
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