August 25, 2021

Lindsay Starr joins UNC Press as Art Director

University of North Carolina Press is excited to announce the hiring of Lindsay Starr as art director. Lindsay previously worked at the University of Texas Press as senior designer. Following the completion of her MFA in communication design, Lindsay taught at Texas State University, the University of Texas, and St. Edward’s University. She is cofounder and creative director of Cattywampus… Continue Reading Lindsay Starr joins UNC Press as Art Director

Categories UNC Press News
August 25, 2021

Understanding Afghanistan’s Past: A Reading List

Some of you may be fully aware of what’s going on in Afghanistan right now, but for those who aren’t or would like to learn more information about what lead up to the recent events in Afghanistan, we’ve created a recommended reading list detailing some events that shaped the country into what it is today. Two weeks before the U.S.… Continue Reading Understanding Afghanistan’s Past: A Reading List

Categories American Studies/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/History/Islamic Studies/Literature/Middle Eastern Studies/Military History/Political Science/Religion
August 24, 2021

Palm Oil’s Industrial Past Illuminates its Ubiquity Today

The following is a guest blog post by Jonathan E. Robins, author of Oil Palm: A Global History. By telling the story of the oil palm across multiple centuries and continents, Robins demonstrates how the fruits of an African palm tree became a key commodity in the story of global capitalism, beginning in the eras of slavery and imperialism, persisting… Continue Reading Palm Oil’s Industrial Past Illuminates its Ubiquity Today

Categories Diplomatic History / International Affairs/Environmental Studies/Labor Studies
August 23, 2021

The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Fourth of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

The following is the sixth segment of a guest blog post series by Roger L. Payne, author of The Outer Banks Gazetteer: The History of Place Names from Carova to Emerald Isle. A book over twenty years in the making, The Outer Banks Gazetteer is a comprehensive reference guide to the region’s place names—over 3,000 entries in all. Click here to view Roger Payne’s entire… Continue Reading The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Fourth of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

Categories History/North Carolina
August 20, 2021

Understanding Haiti’s Past: A Reading List

First and foremost, I’d like to say that this post isn’t about painting Haiti as a picture of continued extreme turmoil, trouble and disaster. Haiti has such a beautifully rich and inspiring culture, but has been plagued with fits of corruption, natural disaster and political unrest through the country’s entire existence. Recently, Haiti has been featured in the news more… Continue Reading Understanding Haiti’s Past: A Reading List

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/American History/Diplomatic History / International Affairs/European History/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Military History
August 19, 2021

Left of Black web series featuring LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans

LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans, was featured on John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute’s Left of Black web series. Left of Black is a web series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars created and hosted by James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies Mark Anthony Neal.… Continue Reading Left of Black web series featuring LaKisha Simmons, author of Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans

Categories African American Studies/Gender Studies/History/Video/Women's Studies
August 18, 2021

UNC Asheville Re-imagines the Humanities Core: A Data-Driven, Student-Centered and Community-Led Curriculum Revision that Goes Beyond Traditional Textbooks

The following reblog from UNC Asheville discusses their publishing partnership with UNC Press on their humanities readers (both print and open access). Thanks for recognizing our Office of Scholarly Publishing Services, and for citing the Ross Fund. The two faculty leading UNC Asheville’s Humanities readers revisions often compare the project to an elephant. It’s large. It’s heavy. But it’s also… Continue Reading UNC Asheville Re-imagines the Humanities Core: A Data-Driven, Student-Centered and Community-Led Curriculum Revision that Goes Beyond Traditional Textbooks

Categories UNC Press News
August 17, 2021

Tainted Tap: Preface

To spread awareness of National Water Quality Month, I decided to post an excerpt from one of the titles featured last week on our “Happy National Water Quality Month!” recommended reading list. This excerpt is from the Preface of Katrinell M. Davis’ Tainted Tap: Flint’s Journey from Crisis to Recovery. Assessing the challenges that community groups faced in their attempts… Continue Reading Tainted Tap: Preface

Categories African American Studies/Environmental Studies/Sociology
August 16, 2021

An Unexpected Mechanism of Native Dispossession

The following is a guest blog post by Jonathan Todd Hancock, author of Convulsed States: Earthquakes, Prophecy, and the Remaking of Early America. Through varied peoples’ efforts to come to grips with the New Madrid earthquakes, Hancock reframes early nineteenth-century North America as a site where all of its inhabitants wrestled with fundamental human questions amid prophecies, political reinventions, and… Continue Reading An Unexpected Mechanism of Native Dispossession

Categories American History/Environmental Studies/Guest Bloggers/History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Native American History
August 13, 2021

Happy National Water Quality Month! A Recommended Reading List

Did you know “Every year, more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war”? With statistics like that, spreading the knowledge behind National Water Quality Month is a necessity. Most communities affected by unsafe water were never cared for from the beginning, so it’s important that those who have the means fight for those who don’t. We’ve… Continue Reading Happy National Water Quality Month! A Recommended Reading List

Categories African American Studies/Environmental Studies/History/Sociology
August 12, 2021

The Center for the Study of Southern Culture SouthTalks series featuring B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life, and filmmaker Zaire Love

In April, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture hosted a talk between B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like The Blues: Race, Black and Backbeat of Black Life, and award-winning filmmaker Zaire Love. Watch as they discuss the collaborative visual they created for Foster’s book, the many sides of black identity in Mississippi, the escapism most black art forms… Continue Reading The Center for the Study of Southern Culture SouthTalks series featuring B. Brian Foster, author of I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life, and filmmaker Zaire Love

Categories African American Studies/Music/Sociology
August 11, 2021

Revisiting the Aitken Bible

The following is a guest blog post by Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press. Sweeping and explicitly transatlantic, Religion and the American Revolution demonstrates that if religion helped set the terms through which Anglo-Americans encountered the imperial crisis and… Continue Reading Revisiting the Aitken Bible

Categories American History/Religion
August 10, 2021

The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Third of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

The following is the fifth segment of a guest blog post series by Roger L. Payne, author of The Outer Banks Gazetteer: The History of Place Names from Carova to Emerald Isle. A book over twenty years in the making, The Outer Banks Gazetteer is a comprehensive reference guide to the region’s place names—over 3,000 entries in all. Click here to view Roger Payne’s… Continue Reading The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Third of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

Categories History/North Carolina
August 9, 2021

George Gordon Meade: Unsung Hero of the Gettysburg Campaign

The following is a guest blog post by Kent Masterson Brown, author of Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command. Commentators often dismiss Meade when discussing the great leaders of the Civil War. But in this long-anticipated book, Kent Masterson Brown draws on an expansive archive to reappraise Meade’s leadership during the Battle of Gettysburg.  Over the years, General George… Continue Reading George Gordon Meade: Unsung Hero of the Gettysburg Campaign

Categories Biography / Autobiography/Civil War/History/Military History
August 6, 2021

2021 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting

We hope you’ll visit our virtual booth for the 2021 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting! A Message from Senior Editor Lucas Church: Welcome to our virtual exhibit! Normally, I’d be there to greet you in-person, show you our wonderful titles, and to talk about your own book project. I do hope we can all see each other next year. In the meantime,… Continue Reading 2021 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting

Categories Sociology/UNC Press News
August 5, 2021

The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North

Last week, The Library Company of Philadelphia hosted a Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North. Drawing evidence from the urban centers of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, Crystal Webster’s innovative research yields a powerful new history of African American childhood before the Civil War. Watch below… Continue Reading The Library Company of Philadelphia’s Fireside Chat with Crystal Lynn Webster, author of Beyond the Boundaries of Childhood: African American Children in the Antebellum North

Categories African American Studies
August 4, 2021

The New Miss America

The following is a guest blog post by Tanya L. Roth, author of Her Cold War: Women in the U.S. Military, 1945–1980. The 1948 Women’s Armed Services Integration Act created permanent military positions for women with the promise of equal pay. Her Cold War follows the experiences of women in the military from the passage of the Act to the early 1980s.… Continue Reading The New Miss America

Categories Gender Studies/History/Military History/Women's Studies
August 3, 2021

The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Second of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

The following is the fourth segment of a guest blog post series by Roger L. Payne, author of The Outer Banks Gazetteer: The History of Place Names from Carova to Emerald Isle. A book over twenty years in the making, The Outer Banks Gazetteer is a comprehensive reference guide to the region’s place names—over 3,000 entries in all. Click here to view Roger Payne’s… Continue Reading The Roanoke Voyages (1584-1590), Second of Five Roanoke Voyages with Emphasis on Geographic Naming

Categories History/North Carolina
August 2, 2021

The Shot Heard Round The World

The following is a guest blog post by Robert G. Parkinson, author of Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence, published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press. In Thirteen Clocks, Parkinson argues that patriot leaders used racial prejudices to persuade Americans to declare independence. Sixty… Continue Reading The Shot Heard Round The World

Categories African American Studies/American History/History/Political Science
July 30, 2021

Celebrity and Crazy

The following is a guest blog post by Carolyn Eastman, author of The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity, published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press. The Strange Genius of Mr. O. is the biography of a remarkable performer—a gaunt Scottish… Continue Reading Celebrity and Crazy

Categories American History/American Studies/Biography / Autobiography/History