March 11, 2010

Congrats to Carolyn Merchant, winner of ASEH’s Distinguished Scholar Award

We are happy as clams—and horses and chickens and goats and all creatures, really—to announce that today, at the American Society for Environmental History’s annual meeting in Portland, our author Carolyn Merchant, receives the Distinguished Scholar Award for her significant contribution to environmental history scholarship. Professor Merchant has focused, throughout her career, on human interactions with the natural environment—how we… Continue Reading Congrats to Carolyn Merchant, winner of ASEH’s Distinguished Scholar Award

Categories Biology/Environmental Studies/Nature/UNC Press Authors
March 10, 2010

Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

Today we celebrate the birthday of Lillian Wald (1867-1940), founder of Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower East Side as well as the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Wald was a second-generation German Jewish immigrant who developed close associations with Jewish New York even as she consistently dismissed claims that her work emerged from a fundamentally Jewish calling.… Continue Reading Happy birthday, Lillian Wald

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/UNC Press Authors/Women's Studies
March 9, 2010

Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

We love it when new UNC Press books seem to be in conversation with other books of the moment.  Take Patti Smith’s acclaimed new memoir, Just Kids (HarperCollins 2010), which offers an inside look at the punk pioneer’s artistic influences and collaborations, including Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Springsteen, Sam Shepard, and Fred “Sonic” Smith–all men. However, right there on… Continue Reading Louisa May Alcott and the Godmother of Punk

Categories American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Interviews/Music/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
March 8, 2010

Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

Have you heard? Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has sponsored a bill to replace U.S. Grant on the $50 bill with Ronald Reagan. In an op-ed for the LA Times, Grant biographer Joan Waugh offers a brief history lesson in defense of the Union general and 18th President of the United States and cautions against further erosion of Grant’s legacy. An… Continue Reading Joan Waugh on Grant v. Reagan (yes, as in Ulysses S. and Ronald)

Categories American History/Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/Current Events/History/Politics/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
March 5, 2010

Battle Without End: Raúl Ramos on the politics of Texas history

Today brings us a guest post from Raúl Ramos, author of Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861. In his book, Ramos introduces a new model for the transnational history of the United States as he focuses on Mexican-Texan, or Tejano, society in a period of political transition beginning with the year of Mexican independence. Ramos explores… Continue Reading Battle Without End: Raúl Ramos on the politics of Texas history

Categories American History/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/UNC Press Authors
March 5, 2010

National Women’s History Month: Women at War

If you are familiar with the UNC Press Blog, you probably know that we know a thing or two about celebrating. If it has a national celebration day, week, or month, we probably have it marked on our calendars well in advance. Why else would we have a 1000-word post on the merits of National Chili Day, like we did… Continue Reading National Women’s History Month: Women at War

Categories American History/Civil War/Current Events/Gender Studies/History/Military History/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
March 3, 2010

What’s Cooking? Karen Barker’s Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads!

Elaine Maisner is a senior editor at UNC Press. Over a recent winter break, she asked her daughter, Zina—a wonderful baker—to make Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads, from Sweet Stuff: Karen Barker’s American Desserts. Here’s their step-by-step guide to making these delicious cookies.–ellen I thought it would be fun to take pictures of Zina making these cookies, especially to show people… Continue Reading What’s Cooking? Karen Barker’s Cornmeal Vanilla Bean Shortbreads!

Categories Cooking / Food/Recipes
March 1, 2010

Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

We welcome a guest post today from S. Scott Rohrer, author of Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865. Popular literature and frontier studies stress that Americans moved west to farm or to seek a new beginning. In Wandering Souls, Rohrer argues that Protestant migrants in early America relocated in search of salvation, Christian community, reform, or all three. In… Continue Reading Scott Rohrer on Ancestral Migrations

Categories American History/Genealogy/Guest Bloggers/Religion/UNC Press Authors
February 26, 2010

How are you celebrating National Chili Day?

So, it’s finally here, the day that comes only once a year. . . UNC Press’s Chili Night.  And this year it falls on a chilly night indeed. But why should you care?  Well, I’d say, because what’s better on a cold, windy night than warm chili?  Isn’t that reason enough?  If you need another reason—if you’re like that—you need… Continue Reading How are you celebrating National Chili Day?

Categories Cooking / Food/Recipes/UNC Press News
February 24, 2010

To Right These Wrongs: A Groundbreaking Project

The first few books from UNC Press’ Spring|Summer 2010 catalog made it to bookshelves this month, and many more will be debuting in the coming months. One of the books we’re excited to publish, in partnership with Publishing the Long Civil Rights Movement, is Robert R. Korstad and James L. Leloudis’ To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and… Continue Reading To Right These Wrongs: A Groundbreaking Project

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Appalachian Studies/Civil Rights/Film/History/North Carolina/Public Policy/Southern Studies/UNC Press News
February 22, 2010

How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

This is the question Susan Reverby considers in a post over at Wonders & Marvels. The author of, most recently, Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy writes: In my most recent book, I had to explain: why did the doctors do it? Sometimes it is easy to answer this: all the men were black and poor, and… Continue Reading How do you Explain the Seemingly Unexplainable?

Categories African American Studies/American History/Health / Medicine/History/UNC Press Authors
February 19, 2010

David Ruggles, Abolitionist and Mentor to Abolitionists

This week is the very good time to talk about Graham Hodges’ new book David Ruggles: A Radical Black Abolitionist and the Underground Railroad in New York City–for at least two reasons.  The first of these is that Hodges was interviewed by Eric Foner (DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University) as part of the Lincoln Series at the… Continue Reading David Ruggles, Abolitionist and Mentor to Abolitionists

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Civil War/History/UNC Press News
February 18, 2010

Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Early 1861 marked the only time in our nation’s history that it had two presidents, both calling for a return to the republic born in the American Revolution. On February 18, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America; on March 4, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States of… Continue Reading Two Inaugural Addresses–two weeks apart

Categories American History/Civil War/UNC Press News
February 16, 2010

Real NASCAR in Real Time: Dan Pierce is blogging!

Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France, by Daniel S. Pierce, is hot off the press and hitting bookstores now. If you’re a racing fan or southern history buff, this book is the can’t-miss backstory behind what has become a billion-dollar industry and one of the most popular spectator sports in America. Pierce writes as a historian… Continue Reading Real NASCAR in Real Time: Dan Pierce is blogging!

Categories American History/American Studies/History/North Carolina/Southern Studies/Sports/UNC Press Authors
February 14, 2010

The Children of Chinatown and Chinese New Year

Today our author Wendy Rouse Jorae writes on the occasion of Chinese New Year.  In her book, The Children of Chinatown: Growing Up Chinese American in San Francisco 1850-1920, Jorae  challenges long-held notions of early Chinatown as a bachelor community by showing that families–and particularly children–played important roles in its daily life. Facing barriers of immigration exclusion, cultural dislocation, child… Continue Reading The Children of Chinatown and Chinese New Year

Categories American History/Asian Studies/Guest Bloggers/UNC Press Authors
February 12, 2010

An NAACP Anniversary: Looking Back at Ella Baker

Today, February 12th, 2010, marks the 101st anniversary of one of the nation’s most important organizations, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Because of today’s important nature, we want to focus on someone central to the organization’s success, as well as many more victories in the civil rights movement. Born in 1903, Ella Baker was involved in… Continue Reading An NAACP Anniversary: Looking Back at Ella Baker

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/Civil Rights/History/UNC Press Authors/UNC Press News
February 11, 2010

Bringing the War Home: Operation Homecoming and the Unending Vietnam War

We welcome a guest post today from Michael J. Allen, author of Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War. In his book, Allen analyzes the effects that activism by POW and MIA families had on U.S. politics before and after the Vietnam War’s official end. In this post, marking the anniversary of the first… Continue Reading Bringing the War Home: Operation Homecoming and the Unending Vietnam War

Categories American History/Guest Bloggers/History/Military History/Military Studies
February 10, 2010

One Fantastic Ride: An Interview with Adam Lucas

It’s a big night for sports fans in Chapel Hill–the Tar Heel basketball team, rebuilding after winning their fifth NCAA championship last year, is hosting that other blue team in the state: Duke, owners of a paltry three national championships. Historically, the Heels have a 130-97 lead in the series and have won the previous three meetings, but the eighth-ranked… Continue Reading One Fantastic Ride: An Interview with Adam Lucas

Categories Interviews/North Carolina/Religion/Sports/UNC Press Authors
February 7, 2010

Today in History: The Importance of February 7th in Haiti

The Haitian Coat of Arms As we all know, events in recent weeks have been difficult for the people of Haiti. Victories have been few, and all accounts suggest the nightmare is far from over. Today, though, is an important day in Haiti, a bright spot in their story for two reasons. Modern politics in Haiti are tied to February… Continue Reading Today in History: The Importance of February 7th in Haiti

Categories Current Events/History/Politics/UNC Press News