January 31, 2022

Negotiating Paradise: Mass Tourism, Empire, and Soft Power

The following is an excerpt from Dennis Merrill’s Negotiating Paradise: U.S. Tourism and Empire in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Accounts of U.S. empire building in Latin America typically portray politically and economically powerful North Americans descending on their southerly neighbors to engage in lopsided negotiations. Dennis Merrill’s comparative history of U.S. tourism in Latin America in the twentieth century demonstrates that… Continue Reading Negotiating Paradise: Mass Tourism, Empire, and Soft Power

Categories Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Excerpts/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Political Science
January 28, 2022

MDAH’s History Is Lunch series featuring author Berkley Hudson, “Pruitt’s Historical Columbus Photographs”

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History recently featured Berkley Hudson, author of O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South, in their History Is Lunch series. Sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi, History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series that explores different aspects of the… Continue Reading MDAH’s History Is Lunch series featuring author Berkley Hudson, “Pruitt’s Historical Columbus Photographs”

Categories American Studies/History/Photography/Video
January 27, 2022

Permanent Markers: Geno-Myths

The following is an excerpt from Sarah Abel’s Permanent Markers: Race, Ancestry, and the Body after the Genome. Over the past twenty years, DNA ancestry testing has morphed from a niche market into a booming international industry that encourages members of the public to answer difficult questions about their identity by looking to the genome. At a time of intensified… Continue Reading Permanent Markers: Geno-Myths

Categories African American Studies/Excerpts/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Political Science/Science
January 26, 2022

Understanding Puerto Rico’s Past: A Recommended Reading List

You may have heard about the recent protest in Puerto Rico that ended in the toppling of a statue in Plaza San Jose. It’s incredibly important to understand that these situations don’t usually happen “out of nowhere.” From various news sources and Twitter, it looks like this happened due to the continued celebration of colonialism in Puerto Rico and the… Continue Reading Understanding Puerto Rico’s Past: A Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/Anthropology/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Fiction/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Latino Studies/Literature/Political Science/Reading Lists/Sociology
January 25, 2022

Crossing Jim Crow: Enlisting and Traveling to Boot Camp

The following is an excerpt from David P. Cline’s Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War, an Oral History. Journalists began to call the Korean War “the Forgotten War” even before it ended. Without a doubt, the most neglected story of this already neglected war is that of African Americans who served just two years after Harry S. Truman ordered the desegregation of the military. Twice Forgotten draws on… Continue Reading Crossing Jim Crow: Enlisting and Traveling to Boot Camp

Categories African American Studies/Excerpts/Military History
January 24, 2022

But for Birmingham: The National Movement

The following is an excerpt from Glenn T. Eskew’s But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle. Birmingham served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and important moments in the history of the civil rights struggle. In this vivid narrative account, Glenn Eskew traces the evolution of nonviolent protest in the city,… Continue Reading But for Birmingham: The National Movement

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Excerpts/History
January 21, 2022

Dr. Melissa Fuster speaks with Dr. William Latimer for BronxNet’s Public Health America series

UNC Press author Dr. Melissa Fuster discusses her book Caribeños at the Table: How Migration, Health, and Race Intersect in New York City with Dr. William Latimer on BronxNet’s Public Health America series. She highlights the importance of social determinants of health among diverse communities in the city. Dr. Fuster also discusses her career trajectory, growing up in Puerto Rico… Continue Reading Dr. Melissa Fuster speaks with Dr. William Latimer for BronxNet’s Public Health America series

Categories Cooking / Food/Latino Studies/Sociology/Video
January 20, 2022

UNC Press Announces New Board Members and Leadership

The Board of Governors for the University of North Carolina System has elected two new members to the UNC Press Board of Governors. Dr. Osamudia James, Professor of Law in the School of Law at UNC Chapel Hill, and Dr. Angela Miles, Associate Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Business Administration at North Carolina Central University, were… Continue Reading UNC Press Announces New Board Members and Leadership

Categories UNC Press News
January 20, 2022

Adrian Miller’s Top 5 Favorite UNC Press Books #UNCP100

In celebration of our centennial year, we’ve asked our authors to write some guest blog posts to help celebrate with us! We’re kicking off our centennial blog post series with a post from Adrian Miller, author of award-winning book Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. In Black Smoke, Miller chronicles how Black barbecuers, pitmasters, and restauranteurs helped… Continue Reading Adrian Miller’s Top 5 Favorite UNC Press Books #UNCP100

Categories African American Studies/Colonial, Revolutionary Era & Early American History/Cooking / Food/North Carolina/Reading Lists/Southern Studies/UNC Press News
January 19, 2022

On the Occasion of Our Centennial Year, We Present the New UNC Press Colophon

From Merriam-Webster: Colophon: nouncol·​o·​phon | \ ˈkä-lə-fən , -ˌfän \Definition of colophon:1: an inscription at the end of a book or manuscript usually with facts about its production2: an identifying mark used by a printer or a publisher The University of North Carolina Press is thrilled to share our new colophon design (otherwise known as: logo), created by Art Director… Continue Reading On the Occasion of Our Centennial Year, We Present the New UNC Press Colophon

Categories UNC Press News
January 18, 2022

O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Listening To Pictures

The following is an excerpt from Berkley Hudson’s O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South. Photographer O. N. Pruitt (1891–1967) was for some forty years the de facto documentarian of Lowndes County, Mississippi, and its county seat, Columbus–known to locals as “Possum Town.” His body of work recalls many FSA photographers, but Pruitt was… Continue Reading O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Listening To Pictures

Categories American Studies/Excerpts/History/Photography
January 17, 2022

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Recommended Reading List

True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom Today marks the 36th annual observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. First observed in 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day serves as a celebration of the life of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Well known… Continue Reading Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Recommended Reading List

Categories African American History/African American Studies/History/Political Science/Reading Lists
January 14, 2022

The Second Century of UNC Press

The Spring of 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of UNC Press. When the Press was founded as an independent not-for-profit—by faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—it was a pivotal event in the intellectual history of the South.  Prior to this, there was no secular publishing in the South. It was a visionary act, defying decades of prejudices… Continue Reading The Second Century of UNC Press

Categories UNC Press News
January 13, 2022

North Carolina In The Connected Age: The Creation of the Connected Age

The following is an excerpt from Michael L. Walden’s North Carolina In The Connected Age: Challenges and Opportunities in a Globalizing Economy. At a time when North Carolina’s population is exploding and its economy is shifting profoundly, one of the state’s leading economists applies the tools of his trade to chronicle these changes and to inform North Carolinians in easy-to-understand… Continue Reading North Carolina In The Connected Age: The Creation of the Connected Age

Categories Business/Excerpts/North Carolina
January 12, 2022

Hot Off The Press: January 2022

We’re publishing some great books this month! Read below to learn more about these exceptional titles. Don’t forget, our Holiday Sale is going on until January 31st. You can save 40% on ALL UNC Press print books and if your order totals $75 or more, the shipping is FREE! Enter code 01HOLIDAY at checkout to receive the discount. Published: PERMANENT… Continue Reading Hot Off The Press: January 2022

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Hot Off The Press/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Military History/Photography/Political Science/Science/UNC Press News
January 11, 2022

AUPresses Receives NEH Grant to Study Impact of Open Access on Print Sales

The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) has been awarded a Level I Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to study the effect of open digital editions on the sales of print monographs. The grant will support a study led by John Sherer, director of the University of North Carolina Press and chair of the AUPresses Open… Continue Reading AUPresses Receives NEH Grant to Study Impact of Open Access on Print Sales

Categories UNC Press News
January 11, 2022

Chronicling Stankonia: The Mountaintop Ain’t Flat

To celebrate Regina Bradley’s Chronicling Stankonia being featured on Blackfeminisms.com’s Academic Books by and About Black Women – 2021 Edition list, we’ve decided to share an excerpt from the book. This vibrant book pulses with the beats of a new American South, probing the ways music, literature, and film have remixed southern identities for a post–civil rights generation. For scholar… Continue Reading Chronicling Stankonia: The Mountaintop Ain’t Flat

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Excerpts/Literature/Music
January 10, 2022

Creating Consumers: Envisioning the Rational Consumer, 1900–1920

The following is an excerpt from Carolyn M. Goldstein’s Creating Consumers: Home Economists in Twentieth-Century America. Home economics emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as a movement to train women to be more efficient household managers. At the same moment, American families began to consume many more goods and services than they produced. To guide women in this… Continue Reading Creating Consumers: Envisioning the Rational Consumer, 1900–1920

Categories American Studies/Business/Excerpts/Women's Studies
January 7, 2022

Historian and Author Martha Jones joins our Gender & American Culture series as Co-Editor

UNC Press is thrilled to announce that the esteemed historian Martha Jones has agreed to serve as co-editor of the Press’s longstanding series, Gender and American Culture. Martha Jones is Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History, and Professor at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. A legal and cultural historian whose work focuses on the experiences of Black… Continue Reading Historian and Author Martha Jones joins our Gender & American Culture series as Co-Editor

Categories UNC Press News
January 7, 2022

“Private Profits and Public Affairs”, The Omohundro Institute’s Conversation with Authors Hannah Farber and Michael Zakim

Watch below as Hannah Farber, author of Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding, and author Michael Zakim speak with the Omohundro Institute for one of their latest author conversations. Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the… Continue Reading “Private Profits and Public Affairs”, The Omohundro Institute’s Conversation with Authors Hannah Farber and Michael Zakim

Categories Business/Colonial, Revolutionary Era & Early American History/Video