Indigenous Peoples’ Day: A Reading List

Happy Indigenous peoples’ day! Today, especially, is a good day to learn about Indigenous history. As we take today to honor the histories and cultures of Indigenous people, we’ve curated a reading list of some of our indigenous titles. Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America by Michael John Witgen Published by the… Continue Reading Indigenous Peoples’ Day: A Reading List

Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 3

Over the past 100 years UNC Press is proud to have published an extensive catalog of award winning and highly praised books. As we celebrate our centennial, we’ve looked back at these prestigious titles to highlight some of our most influential and iconic books. Find the first two installations in our Iconic Books blog series here. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks… Continue Reading Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 3

Why Violent Fraternity Hazing Persists Despite the Known Dangers

The following is a guest blog post by Jana Mathews, author of The Benefits of Friends: Inside the Complicated World of Today’s Sororities and Fraternities, available now from your favorite bookstore. The storyline is so familiar that it constitutes its own subgenre of true crime: on February 26 2021, first-year Virginia Commonwealth University student Adam Oakes died from alcohol poisoning at a… Continue Reading Why Violent Fraternity Hazing Persists Despite the Known Dangers

Lula’s Rise From Metalworker to President of Brazil

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva commonly known as “Lula,” has won the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections by 48.4%, much tighter than many had expected. As we await the second round of election please enjoy this excerpt of Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil by John D. French, which was the winner of… Continue Reading Lula’s Rise From Metalworker to President of Brazil

UNC Press Welcomes Dawn Durante as Assistant Editorial Director

The University of North Carolina Press is delighted to announce that Dawn Durante will join its acquisitions editorial team as assistant editorial director, effective October 17, 2022. Durante will commission and acquire general interest and scholarly work in history, African American and Africana studies, and other related fields. As a senior leader within the acquisitions department, she will also work… Continue Reading UNC Press Welcomes Dawn Durante as Assistant Editorial Director

New Assistant Editorial Director Debbie Gershenowitz 

UNC Press is delighted to announce that effective October 1, 2022, Debbie Gershenowitz has been promoted into the new role of assistant editorial director.   As assistant editorial director, while continuing to acquire a broad range of general interest and scholarly works in the field of history, Debbie will take on new responsibility for strategic leadership and management of the Press’s… Continue Reading New Assistant Editorial Director Debbie Gershenowitz 

2022 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Meeting

UNC Press is excited to be once again exhibiting in-person at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Meeting! We hope you’ll stop by Booth 33 to say hello to editor Andrew Winters and to browse our titles on display. If you can’t join us in-person, you can always stop by our virtual booth! Congratulations… Continue Reading 2022 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Annual Meeting

Trending This Month: September

See what’s trending at UNC Press. Enjoy this reading list of the most viewed books on our website this month. Capitalism and Slavery, Third Edition by Eric Williams with a new foreword by William A. Darity Jr. and an introduction by Colin A. Palmer “[This] new edition of Capitalism and Slavery . . . reminds us in particular of Williams’s… Continue Reading Trending This Month: September

Lost in Fresia

The following is an excerpt from The Investigative Brigade: Hunting Human Rights Criminals in Post-Pinochet Chile by Pascale Bonnefoy Miralles, available now from your favorite bookstore. Lost in Fresia The rain poured down in torrents, and wind whipped against the small Cessna plane suspended in the black of night in flight from Santiago to Puerto Montt. The four passengers on board… Continue Reading Lost in Fresia

Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America Available as an Audiobook

Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America by Randall Balmer is now available as an audiobook, narrated by Randall, from Audible, Libro.fm, and Kobo. Praise for Passion Plays: “An engaging look at the historical conditions surrounding America’s secular, on-field religions.”—Kirkus Reviews “This entertaining history examines the religious and cultural roots of baseball, basketball, football, and hockey…The illuminating insights… Continue Reading Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America Available as an Audiobook

Opposition and Misperceptions of Black Reparations

The following is an excerpt from the new preface of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, Second Edition by William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, available now from your favorite bookstore. Opposition to Black Reparations Two major strands of raw opposition to reparations arise out of misperceptions. One category of misperceptions involves the… Continue Reading Opposition and Misperceptions of Black Reparations

Upcoming UNC Press Author Events

Ilan Stavans and Margaret BoyleSabor JudíoJanuary 11, 2025 | 4:00pmAnshe Emeth Memorial Temple, New Brunswick, NJ Ilan Stavans and Margaret BoyleSabor JudíoJanuary 14, 2025 | 4:00pmBooks & Books, Coral Gables, FL Ryan EmanuelOn the SwampJanuary 13, 2025 | 6:00pmFishbowl Forum—Hill Library, NC State University, Raleigh, NC Kelly AlexanderTruffles and TrashJanuary 14, 2025 | 6:00pmFlyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC Crystal R.… Continue Reading Upcoming UNC Press Author Events

Even When China and the US Were Allies, Chinese and Americans Struggled to Get Along

The following is a guest blog post by Zach Fredman, author of The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949, available now wherever books and e-books are sold. Ties between China and the United States have deteriorated to their lowest point since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1979. But Sino-U.S. relations have always been fraught.… Continue Reading Even When China and the US Were Allies, Chinese and Americans Struggled to Get Along

The Theatrical Origins of Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Wong

The following is a guest blog post by Josephine Lee, author of Oriental, Black, and White: The Formation of Racial Habits in American Theater, available now wherever books are sold. Much like the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor, the 2007 Norbit served as a star vehicle for Eddie Murphy’s impersonations. Murphy played both the nebbish Norbit and Rasputia, his tyrannical wife (the latter complete with… Continue Reading The Theatrical Origins of Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Wong

Edible North Carolina: Upcoming Fall Events

Edible North Carolina: A Journey across a State of Flavor features a collection of essays written by the state and region’s best journalists, farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs, scholars, and food activists. Each essay is accompanied by an original recipe designed for the home cook and illustrated with the breathtaking photography of Baxter Miller, a native North Carolinian and talented documentarian of… Continue Reading Edible North Carolina: Upcoming Fall Events

National Hispanic Heritage Month: A Reading List

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! In 1988 National Hispanic Heritage Month, previously only a week-long observance known as Hispanic Heritage Week which began in 1968, was enacted into law as a month long observance. Since then, every year from September 15th-October 15th, we celebrate the achievements, contributions, cultures, and histories of the American latino community and the independence of several… Continue Reading National Hispanic Heritage Month: A Reading List

The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports

The following is an excerpt from Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America by Randall Balmer, available everywhere books and e-books are sold. To Everything a Season The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports Competitive team sports developed in North America at a time of rapid social, economic, political, demographic—and religious—change. From the emergence of baseball in the 1840s to… Continue Reading The Peculiar Passion Surrounding Team Sports

2026 and Religion: A Conversation with Katherine Carté

Thanks to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture for allowing us to reblog the following Q&A with Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, that originally appeared on their blog, Uncommon Sense. This is the first in a planned series of conversations with Omohundro Institute authors about how their work relates to the American… Continue Reading 2026 and Religion: A Conversation with Katherine Carté

Archival Research in China and Myanmar before the Doors Closed

The following is a guest blog post by Zach Fredman, author of The Tormented Alliance: American Servicemen and the Occupation of China, 1941–1949, available now wherever books and e-books are sold. I spent more than year in Asia researching The Tormented Alliance as a PhD student. My search for sources took me to municipal and provincial archives from all areas of China… Continue Reading Archival Research in China and Myanmar before the Doors Closed

2022 Southern Labor Studies Association Conference

UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at the Southern Labor Studies Association Conference! We hope you’ll stop by our table to say hello to editors Andrew Winters & Lucas Church and to browse our titles on display. If you can’t join us in-person, you can always stop by our virtual booth! Stop by our virtual booth to browse… Continue Reading 2022 Southern Labor Studies Association Conference