When an author is choosing a publisher they consider a number of factors. What is the reputation of the Press? Who else has this Press published? How well will they support my book? And, perhaps a final but very important consideration, What will my book look like on the shelf and when I’m reading it? While I (not surprisingly) feel… Continue Reading Rich Hendel, Book Designer
Have you seen the gorgeous jacket (designed by Rich Hendel) for Louis Perez’s new book? The New Yorker Books Department has, and they’re digging it! (There should be some joke here about judging a book, etc., but I’m going to say let’s just make those jokes quietly to ourselves and move on.) Lou Perez is one of the top historians… Continue Reading Early Buzz for Lou Perez
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called 11 a.m. Sunday mornings “the most segregated hour of the week.” Even today, integrated churches are the exception, not the rule. But that wasn’t always the case. In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together. In The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in… Continue Reading Charles Irons on Today’s State of Things
Brazilian musician and Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil has decided to leave his government post to focus his attention on his music career. When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tapped Gil to be Culture Minister in 2003, Gil was only the second black person to serve in Brazil’s cabinet. The government’s loss now, though, is music’s gain. Gil is one… Continue Reading Gilberto Gil Decides to Stick with Music
Temperatures here in the Raleigh and Chapel Hill area have been climbing steadily over the past weeks, settling into the mid-to-upper 90s. It’s not hard to find people willing to complain about the heat and the humidity and how awful it is outside. When I hear such talk I just smile and nod my head. Sure it’s hot, but I… Continue Reading Hot Chili Peppers in the Glistening Sun
The world witnessed the first wartime use of an atomic weapon on this day 63 years ago when the United States bombed Hiroshima. Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital at the time. He survived the bombing and helped to hold Hiroshima together in the aftermath. Amazingly, he also managed to record daily entries in a personal… Continue Reading Today in History: Hiroshima
The XVII International AIDS Conference takes place this week (Aug 3-8) in Mexico City. This is the first time the bi-annual conference has been held in a Latin American city. As we learn from Shawn Smallman, author of The AIDS Pandemic in Latin America, Latin American countries represent a mosaic of policies, cultures, and infection rates that offer some valuable… Continue Reading International AIDS Conference in Latin America
Sunset on the Ferry (photo by Chor Ip via Creative Commons) Don’t worry, just because I had another post this morning doesn’t mean I forgot that this is Thursday, the highly anticipated day of the weekend roadtrip post! Fear not, dear Tar Heel roadtrippers, we’ve got a special “oke”-alicious lineup for this last segment of our Beach Book Grab Bag… Continue Reading Weekend Roadtrip #7: Roanoke and Ocracoke
What, headline too cryptic? How much does UNC Press love The State of Things? We love it twice as much as yesterday, but only half as much as tomorrow. Today’s show will feature TWO segments with a UNCP author in each segment. No, we are not paying them off. But both UNC Press and The State of Things work to… Continue Reading (UNCP + State of Things) x 2 = Today
Cool activist-esque things to do through the years: early 1960s: register African American voters in the South; late 1960s: protest Vietnam War/attend large-scale concert in upstate New York; 1970s: burn bra while reading Erica Jong; 1990s: wear a red ribbon on an expensive tuxedo; 2008: get involved in the electoral process. Considering the upcoming election season, significant change seems possible,… Continue Reading New Project Aims to “Publish the Long Civil Rights Movement”
Yesterday’s All Things Considered on NPR aired a story about recent efforts by marine preservationists to survey and document sunken German U-boats off Cape Hatteras, NC. Adam Hochberg talks to both a former German sailor and a local Hatteras resident who recalls hearing the torpedoes from the u-boats attacking American vessels. This is the history in which UNCP’s Taffy of… Continue Reading Exploring Torpedo Junction
On July 28, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect, after the required 28 states had ratified the bill that was propsed in 1866. The amendment guaranteed due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves. This was one of three “Reconstruction Amendments” meant to restructure the U.S. from a land divided… Continue Reading Today in history: the 14th Amendment takes effect
The Los Angeles Times Book Review will appear for the last time in a standalone section this Sunday, July 27. Book coverage will continue in the Calendar section of the paper, but 2 of the 5 full-time book review employees will be laid off. Some former editors are justifiably upset about this move. This latest cut is just another blow… Continue Reading Another one bites the dust
Last week, the American Medical Association issued a formal apology for its history of discrimination against black doctors. Today on The State of Things, Frank Stasio and guests will discuss race and health care – particularly, this history of racial discrimination and its ongoing effects, including under-representation of black doctors in the health care profession and the widening of health… Continue Reading Hear Spencie Love on today’s State of Things
On July 21, 1925, John Thomas Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution. Generations later, the teaching of evolution is standard and creationism (in the form of Intelligent Design) is the new challenger. Michael Lienesch, author of In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement, examines… Continue Reading Today in History: John Scopes found guilty
As I was driving to work this morning and listening to NPR, WUNC‘s Leoneda Inge was reporting from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where locals are eager to draw more visitors now. (Forget what I said before about it being too late to plan a trip! It’s not too late!) The economies of beach communities depend on a thriving… Continue Reading Weekend Roadtrip #5: The Outer Banks
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