The free market in housing works for many people, especially those with access to a good education, a stable job, adequate compensation, and decent health care. But not everyone has those things, and the Depression made us understand that it was not always because of personal failings. Continue Reading James Wolfinger: Home Sweet Home: Race and Public Housing in Philadelphia
We welcome a guest post today from Gregory Downs, author of Declarations of Dependence: The Long Reconstruction of Popular Politics in the South, 1861-1908, which we will publish next month. In the book, Downs argues that the Civil War created a seemingly un-American popular politics rooted not in independence but in voluntary claims of dependence. Faced with anarchy during the… Continue Reading Gregory Downs: Jared Lee Loughner, the Personal, and the Political
No sooner had I written the last blog post about representations of the South on reality television than another show made it to the air—TLC’s Bama Belles. It seems unlikely that “belle” is an appellation anyone would apply to women who don camouflage to hunt or are ready to start a bar fight. Still, the conscious decision by the show’s… Continue Reading Karen L. Cox: For Whom the Belle Tolls
We have some exciting news to share with you. As the Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed have hinted over the past couple of days, UNC Press is one of five university presses (so far) that are teaming up with online academic content provider JSTOR to make scholarly books available online in a new venture called “Books at… Continue Reading UNC Press to Publish Books Online through JSTOR
Think of the Wikileaks’ release of State Department cables as one of your holiday gifts that will keep on giving . . . and giving and giving. Julian Assange and Company got generous just before Thanksgiving. A steady dribble from the quarter-million purloined documents should keep us happily diverted well into the new year and perhaps beyond. But what kind… Continue Reading Wikileaks is a gift – but what is it worth?
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’
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
For your holiday viewing pleasure, we offer you some cheer from Brooks Hall. A couple weeks ago, Jennifer kicked off our holiday door decorating season with her stockings full of books. Today we bring you the rest of the tour. You can see the images in the slideshow below, but to see the captions you’ll need to click the top… Continue Reading Holiday Slideshow
Here’s something that would give anyone’s poor heart ease: William Ferris’ Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues is available through Amazon in an enhanced Kindle Edition at a great price. This enhanced edition is an ideal way to enjoy a work that draws heavily from archival video and audio recordings. Listen, watch, and read from the… Continue Reading Give My Poor Heart Ease now available as enhanced E-book!
We recently spoke to Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor about capturing the essence and spirit of a large, rich place in photographs and words in the book they co-authored, The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country. For a limited time, their book, among many other great gift books, is available with a 20% discount through the UNC Press Holiday… Continue Reading Interview: Simpson & Taylor on Carolina’s Coasts
Recently, Adam Lucas, author of Carolina Basketball: A Century of Excellence, sat down with UNC Press editor Mark Simpson-Vos and discussed the many different elements that went into the making of a book that has met the approval of former Carolina players, coaches, and fans alike. Besides penning his column on TarHeelBlue.com, Lucas also publishes Tar Heel Monthly and Tar… Continue Reading Listen: Author Adam Lucas talks Carolina Basketball
We welcome a guest post from Hannah Gill, author of The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina: New Roots in the Old North State, who updates us on recent political activity regarding the Latino immigrant community in Durham, North Carolina.–ellen <br /> On November 15, 2010, Durham City adopted a resolution supporting recognition of the Matricula Consular card as a… Continue Reading Hannah Gill: Durham and the Matricula Consular
Phillip Round, author of Removable Type: Histories of the Book in Indian Country, 1663-1880, recently sat down for an interview on Iowa Public Radio. He joined American Indian studies lecturer James Coppoc and short story author Eddie Chuculate to discuss the history and current state of Native American literature. Beyond his broad knowledge on Native American literacy and printed word… Continue Reading Listen: Phillip Round on Native American Literature
UNC Press author Karen L. Cox draws from some of my favorite not-so-guilty pleasures in a guest post about representations of the South in reality television and popular culture. Her forthcoming book, Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture, examines how entertainment, advertising, and the media construct a romanticized view of Southern culture that, until… Continue Reading Karen L. Cox: The South…In Reality
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
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
This weekend is Waterfowl Weekend at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at Harkers Island, North Carolina. Our authors, Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor will surely be there. Their book is The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country. What it is, it seems to me, is a love letter to the southern part of the NC coast—its… Continue Reading Bland Simpson and Scott Taylor at Harkers Island’s Waterfowl Weekend
One of the annual traditions around UNC Press is to have a door-decorating contest in which decorations incorporate UNC Press books in some way. Rights and contracts assistant Jennifer Hergenroeder has kicked things off this year with her Tar Heel stockings stuffed with UNC Press miniatures. I don’t think one could fit this many actual books in a single stocking,… Continue Reading Getting in the holiday mood
You must be logged in to post a comment.