January 18, 2023

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

Categories UNC Press News
January 16, 2023

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

Categories African American Studies/Guest Bloggers
January 12, 2023

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

Categories African American Studies/Political Science/Women's Studies
January 11, 2023

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

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American Studies/Excerpts
January 10, 2023

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

Categories Excerpts/Southern
January 6, 2023

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

Categories UNC Press News
January 6, 2023

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

Categories UNC Press News
January 4, 2023

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

Categories Excerpts/Latin American & Caribbean Studies
December 30, 2022

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

Categories Reading Lists/UNC Press News
December 29, 2022

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

Categories UNC Press News
December 28, 2022

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

Categories Excerpts/Southern
December 23, 2022

$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

Categories UNC Press News
December 22, 2022

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

Categories African American Studies/Education
December 20, 2022

Making Fruitcake: From its Origins to My Oven

The following is a guest blog post by Rebecca Sharpless, author of Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South, which is available now everywhere books are sold.  This year, I decided to make a fruitcake. Only a few people confess to actually liking fruitcake. Its density and the frequent use of a bitter fruit called citron… Continue Reading Making Fruitcake: From its Origins to My Oven

Categories Cooking / Food/Food Studies
December 19, 2022

2026 and Insurance: A Conversation With Hannah Farber

Thanks to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture for allowing us to reblog the following Q&A with Hannah Farber, author of Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding, that originally appeared on their blog, Uncommon Sense. In this installment of interviews with OI Book authors about the Semiquincentennial, Hannah Farber discusses marine insurance—a topic that seems… Continue Reading 2026 and Insurance: A Conversation With Hannah Farber

Categories Business/Colonial, Revolutionary Era & Early American History
December 16, 2022

Iconic Books From the Past 100 Years: Part 5

Over the past 100 years UNC Press is proud to have published an extensive catalog of award winning and highly praised books. This month marks the end of our centennial year celebration and the final installment of our Iconic Books blog post series. This series looks back at the titles we’ve published and highlights our most influential and iconic books.… Continue Reading Iconic Books From the Past 100 Years: Part 5

Categories UNC Press News/UNCP 100 Iconic Books
December 14, 2022

Early American Literature Announces 2022 Book Prize Recipient

The following is the 2022 Book Prize announcement from Early American Literature, the official journal of both the Society of Early Americanists and the MLA’s Forum on Early American Literature.  Wendy Raphael Roberts, Associate Professor of English at the University at Albany, SUNY, has been selected to receive the 2022 Early American Literature Book Prize. Roberts’s Awakening Verse: The Poetics of Early American Evangelicalism was published… Continue Reading Early American Literature Announces 2022 Book Prize Recipient

Categories Journals/UNC Press News
December 12, 2022

From Briggs to Boston, and Back

The following is a guest blog post by Zebulon Vance Miletsky, author of Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle, available now wherever books and e-books are sold. In Clarendon County, South Carolina, a farmer named Levi Pearson stood up with NAACP lawyer Harold Boulware to ask for a school bus. The Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine was… Continue Reading From Briggs to Boston, and Back

Categories African American Studies/Political Science
December 9, 2022

Defending the Arctic Refuge: Introducing a Public History Website

Many thanks to NiCHE for allowing us to reblog this blog post by Finis Dunaway, author of Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice. You can explore the Defending the Arctic Refuge website here. If I were to tell you that in the 1980s a group of amateur activists in California put… Continue Reading Defending the Arctic Refuge: Introducing a Public History Website

Categories American Studies/Canadian Studies/Environmental Studies/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Public Policy
December 8, 2022

New This Month: December

Happy December! Browse our new books publishing this month and don’t forget to take advantage of our holiday sale for 40% off + FREE SHIPPING on orders over $75! Use code 01HOLIDAY at checkout. Before Busing: A History of Boston’s Long Black Freedom Struggle by Zebulon Vance Miletsky “This is a history of Black and white Bostonians in all their variations… Continue Reading New This Month: December

Categories Reading Lists