February 9, 2022

Letelier, Boric, and Social Justice in Chile

The following is a guest blog post from Alan McPherson, author of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice. On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his colleague Ronni Moffitt. The murder shocked the world, especially because of its setting–Sheridan… Continue Reading Letelier, Boric, and Social Justice in Chile

Categories Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Guest Bloggers/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Political Science
February 8, 2022

Black History Month 2022 Reading List: Black Resistance

As you may already now, February is Black History Month. The history of black people should be celebrated at all times, but in February, we shine an extra special light on it. Black History Month began as Negro History Week in February 1926, created by historian Carter G. Woodson. In 1976, the celebration was expanded to a month. We’ll be… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: Black Resistance

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American Studies/Education/Environmental Studies/Gender Studies/History/Literature/Music/Political Science/Reading Lists/Southern Studies/Women's Studies
February 7, 2022

Critical Book Spotlight: Dr. Robert Chase

Reblogged with permission from the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Critical Criminology and Social Justice Newsletter Robert T. Chase is associate professor of history at Stony Brook University, State University of New York (SUNY). He is the author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America (UNC, 2020). He is also the editor of Caging… Continue Reading Critical Book Spotlight: Dr. Robert Chase

Categories African American Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Sociology
February 4, 2022

Author Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

Last month, the U.S. National Archives hosted a talk with historian Alaina E. Roberts and Warren Eugene Milteer Jr., author of Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South. On the eve of the Civil War, most people of color in the United States toiled in bondage. Yet nearly half a million of these individuals, including over 250,000 in the South,… Continue Reading Author Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.’s Talk With the U.S. National Archives

Categories African American Studies/History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
February 3, 2022

The Letelier Assassination and the Power of Non-State Actors

The following is a guest blog post from Alan McPherson, author of Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet’s Terror State to Justice. On September 21, 1976, a car bomb killed Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean ambassador to the United States, along with his colleague Ronni Moffitt. The murder shocked the world, especially because of its setting–Sheridan… Continue Reading The Letelier Assassination and the Power of Non-State Actors

Categories Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Guest Bloggers/Latin American & Caribbean Studies/Political Science
February 2, 2022

How Martin Luther King Jr. Mastered the Masters

The following is a guest blog post from Lane Demas, author of Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf. This groundbreaking history of African Americans and golf explores the role of race, class, and public space in golf course development, the stories of individual black golfers during the age of segregation, the legal battle to integrate public golf… Continue Reading How Martin Luther King Jr. Mastered the Masters

Categories African American Studies/Guest Bloggers/Sports
February 1, 2022

The Hidden Histories of American Food Reform

The following is a guest blog post from Jennifer Jensen Wallach, author of Every Nation Has Its Dish: Black Bodies and Black Food in Twentieth-Century America. Jennifer Jensen Wallach’s nuanced history of black foodways across the twentieth century challenges traditional narratives of “soul food” as a singular style of historical African American cuisine. Wallach investigates the experiences and diverse convictions… Continue Reading The Hidden Histories of American Food Reform

Categories African American Studies/American Studies/Cooking / Food/Guest Bloggers
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