Black History Month Reading List: Black Voices

UNC Press began publishing books on African American studies in the late 1920’s and we are proud to continually publish distinguished scholarship in this area. In celebration of Black History Month we will be highlighting titles that amplify black voices, underline the black experience, and engage with Black history. You can find weekly reading lists here on the blog and… Continue Reading Black History Month Reading List: Black Voices

New In Paperback: February

We’re kicking off our Spring/Summer 2023 season with new paperbacks. Browse this list of titles newly available in paperback form, including our Savor the South Cookbooks, and be sure to browse all of our new paperbacks coming out this season. Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox by Caroline E. Janney 2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize… Continue Reading New In Paperback: February

Defining Indigeneity

The following is an excerpt from On Our Own Terms: Development and Indigeneity in Cold War Guatemala by Sarah Foss, available wherever books are sold. Defining Indigeneity In 1945, the newly created IING sent surveys to the directors of national schools in sixteen of Guatemala’s twenty-two departments, selecting those with substantial Indigenous populations. Because a large majority of responders were… Continue Reading Defining Indigeneity

Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists

The following is an excerpt from Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South by La Shonda Mims, available wherever books are sold. Writing candidly about her struggles to understand sexuality, Carson McCullers identified herself as a sexual invert. She sought inspiration in the work of sexologist Havelock Ellis, who was active in an early twentieth-century community of… Continue Reading Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists

Trending this Month: January

See what’s trending at UNC Press with this reading list of the most viewed books on our website this month. Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South by Sarah McNamara (April 2023 “Sarah McNamara brings a dedication to historical craft—a fealty to the archives as well as command of oral history as practice and praxis. Writing with passion and precision, she always… Continue Reading Trending this Month: January

The Strikers of Coachella: Read the Intro

The following is an excerpt of The Strikers of Coachella: A Rank-and-File History of the UFW Movement by Christian O. Paiz, available wherever books are sold. In a Small Place In the summer of 1969, the United Farm Workers (UFW) newspaper, El Malcriado, published an eight-photo spread titled “The Strikers of Coachella”: two of Mexican women, two of Filipino men, and… Continue Reading The Strikers of Coachella: Read the Intro

The Return of Lula to the Brazilian Presidency: Reflections by Lula’s Biographer

Guest blog post by John D. French, author of Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil I progress as I digress, the author of Tristram Shandy wrote, and so Brazil, a country whose November election touched hearts, leading many to contact me after the second round of the election. The anxieties associated with uncertainties of the transition—including… Continue Reading The Return of Lula to the Brazilian Presidency: Reflections by Lula’s Biographer

JSTOR and university press partners announce Path to Open Books pilot

JSTOR, part of the non-profit ITHAKA, and a cohort of leading university presses announced today Path to Open, a program to support the open access publication of new groundbreaking scholarly books that will bring diverse perspectives and research to millions of people. Launching as a pilot, Path to Open libraries will contribute funds to enable participating presses to publish new books… Continue Reading JSTOR and university press partners announce Path to Open Books pilot

Reliving King’s Dream

The following is a guest post by Daniel T. Fleming, author of Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On January 20, 1986, the United States celebrated the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Half a million people filled the streets of downtown Atlanta as the inaugural King Day parade moved along Peachtree Street and… Continue Reading Reliving King’s Dream

The Making of a Young Intellectual

The following is an excerpt from Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics by Anastasia C. Curwood, available wherever books are sold. The Making of a Young Intellectual Although Shirley Chisholm would eventually be a formidable Black feminist political force, young Shirley St. Hill was ambivalent about pursuing politics during college and her early career. She was inspired by… Continue Reading The Making of a Young Intellectual

Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: An Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America by Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, available everywhere books are sold. THE MESSIANIC MOMENT, 1919–1931 The year 1919 marked the tercentennial of chattel slavery’s genesis in English North America. White supremacy may have warped notions of forgiveness, of forbearance, and of the significance of African bondage,… Continue Reading Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: An Excerpt

Native Americans and Enslaved Africans

The following is an excerpt from The Southern Way of Life: Meanings of Culture and Civilization in the American South by Charles Reagan Wilson, available everywhere books and ebooks are sold. Native Americans and Enslaved Africans Southern colonists, including Jefferson’s forebears, had been on the periphery of Western civilization at the beginning of settlement, but they self-consciously came as predominantly… Continue Reading Native Americans and Enslaved Africans

2023 Modern Language Association Annual Meeting

UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at the Modern Language Association annual meeting! We hope you’ll stop by booth 308 to say hello to editor Lucas Church and to browse our titles on display. And if you can’t join us in-person, you can always visit our virtual booth! Congratulations Shanna Greene Benjamin! Half in Shadow received an Honorable… Continue Reading 2023 Modern Language Association Annual Meeting

2023 American Historical Association Annual Meeting

UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at the American Historical Association annual meeting! We hope you’ll stop by booth 406 to say hello to editors Mark Simpson-Vos, Debbie Gershenowitz, and Andrew Winters and to browse our titles on display. And be sure to stop by booth 410 to say hello to our publishing partners, the Omohundro Institute. And… Continue Reading 2023 American Historical Association Annual Meeting

Agriculture’s Energy: Introduction

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Agriculture’s Energy: The Trouble with Ethanol in Brazil’s Green Revolution by Thomas D. Rogers, available now wherever books are sold. From 1900 to 2000, in the midst of dramatic population growth, Brazil experienced a neat demographic inversion. At the same time that it grew by a factor of ten, from 17… Continue Reading Agriculture’s Energy: Introduction

Books to Look Forward to in 2023

As we wrap up our centennial celebration we’re heading into the start of our second century with an exciting list of new titles. Continue reading to see the remainder of our Fall 2022 books publishing in January and be sure to also browse our Spring 2023 catalog which includes books on the Covid-19 pandemic, history of the American south, America’s… Continue Reading Books to Look Forward to in 2023

2022 Blog In Review

2022 was an exciting year at UNC Press. Among the many things that have happened—award and prize winners, new releases, in-person conferences, staff promotions, new hires, our 100th year anniversary, and more—there have been some exciting things happening here on the blog, specifically. Earlier this year we rolled out a new interface which has made our blog content easier to… Continue Reading 2022 Blog In Review

A Camp Meeting at the Gallows

The following is an excerpt from The End of Public Execution: Race, Religion, and Punishment in the American South by Michael Ayers Trotti, available now wherever books are sold. A Camp Meeting at the Gallows There is a fountain fill’d with blood,Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,Lose all their guilty stains,Lose all their guilty stains.The dying thief rejoiced… Continue Reading A Camp Meeting at the Gallows

$100 for the Close of Our 100th

Looking forward to our 101th year of publishing, we thank the friends and supporters of UNC Press in whatever way you provide our nonprofit publishing with support—be it through the purchase (or accessing via the library of your choice) our ebooks, books, and journals, or through your generous financial gifts. Having reached the culmination of our centennial anniversary, we invite… Continue Reading $100 for the Close of Our 100th

The Construction of Youth and the Rise of the Black High School

The following is an excerpt from A New Kind of Youth: Historically Black High Schools and Southern Student Activism, 1920–1975 by Jon N. Hale, available now wherever books are sold. The Construction of Youth and the Rise of the Black High School Though often overshadowed by the work of Black colleges or Black churches, southern Black high schools were an… Continue Reading The Construction of Youth and the Rise of the Black High School