Vanessa May: When the Workplace Is Someone Else’s Home

Today we welcome a guest post from Vanessa May, author of Unprotected Labor: Household Workers, Politics, and Middle-Class Reform in New York, 1870-1940 (June 2011). Here she reflects on how some of the recent policies that now protect domestic workers in New York mirror the struggle for rights and reform during the era highlighted in her book.  The passing of… Continue Reading Vanessa May: When the Workplace Is Someone Else’s Home

David W. Stowe: Coming Out of the Jesus Movement: A Conversation with Marsha Stevens-Pino

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

Celebrating B.W. Wells

Today we remember the late B. W. Wells, plant ecologist, conservationist, and author of The Natural Gardens of North Carolina. On March 26th, Rock Cliff Farm, Wells’s place of retirement, is celebrating B.W. Wells Heritage Day, with tours, activities, giveaways, and exhibits that recall the life and work of this pioneering ecologist.  His work lives on through this event and… Continue Reading Celebrating B.W. Wells

When You’re Lookin’ at Her, You’re Lookin’ at History

As we mark Loretta Lynn’s 50th anniversary in country music, I think it’s important to recognize her not only for her contributions to country music, but also for her role in women’s history as a troubadour for working-class women everywhere. Continue Reading When You’re Lookin’ at Her, You’re Lookin’ at History

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!!

Interview: Joe Miller talks backpacking in North Carolina

Joe Miller, author of Backpacking North Carolina: The Definitive Guide to 43 Can’t-Miss Trips from Mountains to Sea, shares his wisdom about the many diverse hiking opportunities the great state of North Carolina has to offer. Visit his blog at getgoingnc.com or follow him on Twitter @JoeAGoGo to learn more about his experiences with the great outdoors. Spring is around… Continue Reading Interview: Joe Miller talks backpacking in North Carolina

Sheri Castle: Creamy Baby Turnip Soup with Smoked Trout Butter

What to do with all those root vegetables at the winter farmers’ market?? Try this hearty March recipe from The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers’ Markets, Roadside Stands, and CSA Farm Boxes, by Sheri Castle. Continue Reading Sheri Castle: Creamy Baby Turnip Soup with Smoked Trout Butter

Peter Held: Remembering Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011)

One of the goals of the Toshiko Takaezu Book Foundation, who contracted with me to act as editor for the book, was that Toshiko would be able to hold it in her hands. It pleases me to no end this was accomplished a week prior to her passing. Continue Reading Peter Held: Remembering Toshiko Takaezu (1922-2011)

Get Innovative at Carolina!

This week, the Innovate@Carolina series brings some exciting events related to entrepreneurship to UNC.  Chancellor Holden Thorp, author (with Buck Goldstein) of Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century, is a member of President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  Other members of the NACIE will be on hand on Monday and Tuesday to share… Continue Reading Get Innovative at Carolina!

Remembering the Fruitcake Lady on her 100th birthday

Marie Rudisill (1911-2006), aka The Fruitcake Lady, was born 100 years ago this Sunday. You may remember her from her appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Maybe you learned about her last fall when Beth blogged about the Fruitcake Festival and announced our new edition of Rudisill’s cookbook, Fruitcake. As we head off to the weekend, we leave… Continue Reading Remembering the Fruitcake Lady on her 100th birthday

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

International Women’s Day Megapost Spectacular!

Happy International Women’s Day!  People are recognizing and celebrating the importance of women all over the world–check out the #InternationalWomensDay hashtag on Twitter to see the many ways people are expressing their appreciation for women today.  Here in the U.S., the month of March is National Women’s History Month, where we celebrate the many great achievements by women over the… Continue Reading International Women’s Day Megapost Spectacular!

James Marten: Charity for All: A Little-Known Legacy of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

We welcome a guest post from James Marten, author of Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America.  Today is the anniversary of President Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural, in which he made a promise that was kept by passing federal programs that took care of war veterans and their families. Here, Marten discusses the importance… Continue Reading James Marten: Charity for All: A Little-Known Legacy of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

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

W. Fitzhugh Brundage: Beyoncé, Bert Williams, and the History of Blackface in America

When we read about Beyoncé‘s recent photo shoot in blackface, we asked for some historical insight from W. Fitzhugh Brundage, editor of the forthcoming book Beyond Blackface: African Americans and the Creation of American Popular Culture, 1890-1930 (July 2011). The book includes essays from sixteen scholars who depict popular culture as a crucial arena in which African Americans struggled to… Continue Reading W. Fitzhugh Brundage: Beyoncé, Bert Williams, and the History of Blackface in America

Leon Fink: Oceanic Piracy–A War without Nations

In today’s guest post, Leon Fink, author of Sweatshops at Sea: Merchant Seamen in the World’s First Globalized Industry, from 1812 to the Present, reflects on the recent Somali pirate attack on a group of Americans on a private yacht.  With piracy on the rise off the Somali coast, the relationship between commerce, globalization, power, and security becomes problematic.  Fink… Continue Reading Leon Fink: Oceanic Piracy–A War without Nations