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

Bland Simpson and Ann Cary SimpsonClover GardenNovember 19, 2024 | 4:00pmNorth Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC Leon FinkThe Maya of MorgantonNovember 19, 2024 | 4:30pm Mortara Center at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. Sayantani DasguptaBrown Women Have EverythingNovember 23, 2024 | 12:00pmCape Fear Book Festival, Wilmington, NC (details TBD) Timothy SilverDeath in Briar BottomDecember 5, 2024 | 5pm ETPalm Harbor… 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

Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 2

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. You can find our first blog post of iconic books here. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790… Continue Reading Iconic Books From The Past 100 Years: Part 2

“The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey” Available as an Audiobook, Narrated by Author Bland Simpson

The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: A Nonfiction Novel by Bland Simpson is now available as an audiobook from Audible, Libro.fm, and Kobo. Simpson is also the narrator of the audiobook. Praise for The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: 1995 Historical Fiction Award, North Carolina Society of Historians “An arresting and elegant meditation on guilt and innocence and the inscrutability… Continue Reading “The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey” Available as an Audiobook, Narrated by Author Bland Simpson

Remembering the Arab Scare: America’s Response to the Munich Olympic Attacks 50 Years Later

Fifty years ago, on September 5, 1972, Palestinian nationalist militants from the Black September organization stunned the world with an attack on Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany. Satellite television turned the hostage-taking siege into an international live-action news drama, which reached a bloody climax in the deaths of a police officer, five militants, and all… Continue Reading Remembering the Arab Scare: America’s Response to the Munich Olympic Attacks 50 Years Later

New This Month: September

Happy September! We know some of you have already started to pull out your sweaters, sweatshirts, and fall decor, while you sip on your pumpkin coffee…but don’t forget to also stock up your shelves for some cozy fall reading. Browse our lineup of books publishing this month and take advantage of our anniversary sale with 40% off your order when you use… Continue Reading New This Month: September

Child-Saving During World War II

The following is an excerpt from Suffer the Little Children: Child Migration and the Geopolitics of Compassion in the United States by Anita Casavantes Bradford, available everywhere books and e-books are sold. Collateral Humanitarianism Child-Saving during World War II Between 1940 and 1945, concerned Americans continued to improvise child evacuation programs to safeguard endangered children across the Atlantic. The nonsectarian coalition brought… Continue Reading Child-Saving During World War II

“Committed” Now Available as an Audiobook

Committed: Remembering Native Kinship in and beyond Institutions by Susan Burch is now available as an audiobook from Audible, Kobo, and Libro.fm. Praise for Committed: 2021 Alison Piepmeier Book Prize, National Women’s Studies Association “A model of how to write histories that are as inclusive and broadly accessible as they are necessary.”—H-Net “This slim volume packs a powerful punch. .… Continue Reading “Committed” Now Available as an Audiobook

How Starving Soldiers Survived

The following is an excerpt from Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 by Ricardo A. Herrera available everywhere books and e-books are sold. Faced with the collapse of the commissariat and the all too real potential of scattering the army across eastern Pennsylvania so that it might feed itself, Washington was on the horns of a dilemma.… Continue Reading How Starving Soldiers Survived

Reading List for Women’s Equality Day

Happy Women’s Equality Day! To celebrate, we’ve created a reading list of books covering a range of topics including women’s suffrage, workplace equality, human rights, and more. Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement by Cathleen D. Cahill Honorable Mention, 2020 Armitage-Jameson Prize, Coalition for Western Women’s History Honorable Mention, 2022 President’s Book Prize, Society for… Continue Reading Reading List for Women’s Equality Day

Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”

Sunday, August 28, we celebrate the anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. In the following guest post, Daniel T. Fleming, author of Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day—available NOW wherever books and e-books are sold—writes about the history surrounding the copyright of the… Continue Reading Martin Luther King Jr. and the “Coca Cola Scenario”