Debbie Moose: Buying and Cooking North Carolina fish and shellfish (with recipe!)

Today we welcome a guest post from Debbie Moose, author of Carolina Catch:  Cooking North Carolina Fish and Shellfish from Mountains to Coast, just published by UNC Press.  Debbie reveals how to find the best North Carolina seafood in season, and also includes a tasty recipe for fried soft-shell crabs. Early in life, North Carolinian Debbie Moose encountered fish primarily… Continue Reading Debbie Moose: Buying and Cooking North Carolina fish and shellfish (with recipe!)

Remembering Mama Dip: by William Ferris

Many people from all walks of life are mourning the death, on May 20, of Mildred Council, eighty-nine years old and widely known as Mama Dip. Mama Dip was appreciated far and wide, in so many ways, by so many people. Below, we are honored to include the appreciation of Mama Dip given at her memorial service on May 27… Continue Reading Remembering Mama Dip: by William Ferris

Remembering Mama Dip: by Elaine Maisner, Executive Editor, UNC Press

Remembering Mama Dip Many people from all walks of life are mourning the death, on May 20, of Mildred Council, eighty-nine years old and widely known as Mama Dip. Mama Dip was appreciated far and wide, in so many ways, by so many people.  I’d like to take the opportunity to offer a remembrance of my own, as the UNC… Continue Reading Remembering Mama Dip: by Elaine Maisner, Executive Editor, UNC Press

Hendrik Hartog: What’s in a Word

Today we welcome a guest post from Hendrik Hartog, author of The Trouble with Minna:  A Case of Slavery and Emancipation in the Antebellum North, just published by UNC Press. In this intriguing book, Hendrik Hartog uses a forgotten 1840 case to explore the regime of gradual emancipation that took place in New Jersey over the first half of the… Continue Reading Hendrik Hartog: What’s in a Word

Remembering Mama Dip: by Gina Mahalek, Publicity Director, UNC Press

Remembering Mama Dip As UNC Press’s Publicity Director, I had the privilege of working with Mildred Council, who passed away on May 20, 2018 at the age of 89, on promoting Mama Dip’s Kitchen (UNC Press’s best selling title of all time) and the classic Mama Dip’s Family Cookbook.  This included being Mama Dip’s media escort on many of her… Continue Reading Remembering Mama Dip: by Gina Mahalek, Publicity Director, UNC Press

Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Trumpism and Anarchist Problem Solving

Today we welcome a guest post from Courtney Elizabeth Knapp, author of Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie:  Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just published from UNC Press. What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the politics of… Continue Reading Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Trumpism and Anarchist Problem Solving

Dalia Antonia Muller: Our America? Whose América?

Today, we welcome a guest post from Dalia Antonia Muller, author of Cuban Émigrés and Independence in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf World. During the violent years of war marking Cuba’s final push for independence from Spain, over 3,000 Cuban émigrés, men and women, rich and poor, fled to Mexico. But more than a safe haven, Mexico was a key site, Dalia… Continue Reading Dalia Antonia Muller: Our America? Whose América?

Steven M. Stowe: Lives Written Larger than War

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, out now from UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Lives Written Larger than War

John M. Coggeshall: Big T or little “t’s”: The Contingent Nature of History

Today we welcome a guest post from John M. Coggeshall, author of Liberia, South Carolina: An African American Appalachian Community, just published by UNC Press. In 2007, while researching mountain culture in upstate South Carolina, anthropologist John M. Coggeshall stumbled upon the small community of Liberia in the Blue Ridge foothills. There he met Mable Owens Clarke and her family,… Continue Reading John M. Coggeshall: Big T or little “t’s”: The Contingent Nature of History

Sally Dwyer-McNulty: Fashioning Catholicism and Jewish Allies

Today we welcome a guest post from Sally Dwyer-McNulty, author of Common Threads: A Cultural History of Clothing in American Catholicism available in paperback from UNC Press. A well-illustrated cultural history of the apparel worn by American Catholics, Dwyer-McNulty’s book reveals the transnational origins and homegrown significance of clothing in developing identity, unity, and a sense of respectability for a… Continue Reading Sally Dwyer-McNulty: Fashioning Catholicism and Jewish Allies

Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Reckoning with Local Legacies of Racialized Violence

Today we welcome a guest post from Courtney Elizabeth Knapp, author of Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie:  Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just published this month from UNC Press. What can local histories of interracial conflict and collaboration teach us about the potential for urban equity and social justice in the future? Courtney Elizabeth Knapp chronicles the… Continue Reading Courtney Elizabeth Knapp: Reckoning with Local Legacies of Racialized Violence

Jason W. Smith: Creating Matthew Fontaine Maury’s Wind and Current Charts

Today we welcome a guest post from Jason W. Smith, author of To Master the Boundless Sea:  The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire, just published by UNC Press in our Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges series. As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like “sea power” derived not only… Continue Reading Jason W. Smith: Creating Matthew Fontaine Maury’s Wind and Current Charts

Rebecca Tuuri: Black Women’s Political Power (and Pragmatism)

Today we welcome a guest post by Rebecca Tuuri, author of Strategic Sisterhood: The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, just published by UNC Press. When women were denied a major speaking role at the 1963 March on Washington, Dorothy Height, head of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), organized her own women’s conference for… Continue Reading Rebecca Tuuri: Black Women’s Political Power (and Pragmatism)

Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt: Wakanda Mexicana

Today we welcome a guest post from Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt, author of The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950, just published by UNC Press. In this history of the social and human sciences in Mexico and the United States, Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt reveals intricate connections among the development of science, the concept of race,… Continue Reading Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt: Wakanda Mexicana

Steven M. Stowe: Was Love Trivial in the Civil War?

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, just published by UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Was Love Trivial in the Civil War?

Craig Bruce Smith: Claims of a “Very Honorable” Kim Jong Un are Trump-ed Up

Today, we welcome a guest post from Craig Bruce Smith, author of American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era, just published by UNC Press. The American Revolution was not only a revolution for liberty and freedom, it was also a revolution of ethics, reshaping what colonial Americans understood as “honor” and “virtue.” As Craig Bruce… Continue Reading Craig Bruce Smith: Claims of a “Very Honorable” Kim Jong Un are Trump-ed Up

Author Interview: A conversation with Douglas Reichert Powell, author of Endless Caverns

UNC Press Publicity Director Gina Mahalek talks with Douglas Reichert Powell, author of Endless Caverns: An Underground Journey into the Show Caves of Appalachia. For generations, enterprising people in the southern Appalachians have turned the region’s extensive network of caves into a strange, fascinating genre of tourist attraction. Show caves, as Douglas Reichert Powell explains in Endless Caverns, are at… Continue Reading Author Interview: A conversation with Douglas Reichert Powell, author of Endless Caverns

Time for another UNC Press book giveaway: Enter to win two new books in Native American and Indigenous studies!

UNC Press is raffling off the two inaugural volumes in our new series, Critical Indigeneities. To help us celebrate, enter to win copies of: Defiant Indigeneity:  The Politics of Hawaiian Performance by Stephanie Nohelani Teves The Sound of Navajo Country:  Music, Language, and Diné Belonging by Kristina M. Jacobsen To enter, simply follow us on Twitter (@uncpressblog), re-Tweet this contest,… Continue Reading Time for another UNC Press book giveaway: Enter to win two new books in Native American and Indigenous studies!

Mushroom of the Month, May 2018: Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Ganoderma tsugae

Today we initiate a new monthly series, Mushroom of the Month, brought to you by Michael W. Hopping, co-author of A Field Guide to Mushrooms of the Carolinas:  A Southern Gateways Guide, just published by UNC Press.  Mushrooms in the wild present an enticing challenge: some are delicious, others are deadly, and still others take on almost unbelievable forms. A… Continue Reading Mushroom of the Month, May 2018: Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Ganoderma tsugae

Steven M. Stowe: Understanding People We Don’t Like

Today we welcome a guest post from Steven M. Stowe, author of Keep the Days:  Reading the Civil War Diaries of Southern Women, just published by UNC Press. Americans wrote fiercely during the Civil War. War surprised, devastated, and opened up imagination, taking hold of Americans’ words as well as their homes and families. The personal diary—wildly ragged yet rooted… Continue Reading Steven M. Stowe: Understanding People We Don’t Like