October 16, 2013

Jonathan Scott Holloway: Where Does a Historian Find the Truth?

I still rely on and value deeply these brick-and-mortar archives, but my research in Jim Crow Wisdom has taught me to value the archive of the imagination as well. Like any archive, the imagination is a place that is fundamentally about assemblage: a mixture of our best efforts to remember the past accurately, the eroding effects of time, and a desire for narrative clarity and poignancy. Relying on the imagination for its archival properties is central to this book and helps us develop a richer sense of memory and of history. Continue Reading Jonathan Scott Holloway: Where Does a Historian Find the Truth?

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/History
October 15, 2013

Lawrence S. Earley: The Stories I Heard

Milan Lewis of Atlantic said that he had joined the Navy during the Second World War. “I didn’t go in because I was patriotic,” he said. “I went in because I was digging clams for 40 cents a bushel, and I thought the Navy would be better, which was a mistake. The clamming was better.” Continue Reading Lawrence S. Earley: The Stories I Heard

Categories Art / Architecture/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/North Carolina/Photography
October 11, 2013

Honoring the Legacy of William Friday this University Day

Now, and available for the first time in paperback, William A. Link’s second edition of the acclaimed biography William Friday: Power, Purpose, and American Higher Education is updated to trace William Friday’s remarkable career and commemorate his legendary life.
Continue Reading Honoring the Legacy of William Friday this University Day

Categories Education
October 9, 2013

Adam D. Shprintzen: Beyond, Beyond Meat

Meat substitutes attempted to provide these gustatory benefits while also ensuring a violence-free diet. In fact, early meat substitutes were positioned as being even more effective than meat in their strength- and muscle-building properties. Continue Reading Adam D. Shprintzen: Beyond, Beyond Meat

Categories American Studies/Cooking / Food/Health / Medicine/History
October 7, 2013

Sandra A. Gutierrez: A Tropical Vacation on a Stick

One of the biggest misconceptions I find about Latin American food is that it’s complicated to make—but nothing could be further from the truth. I give you plenty of examples of no fuss, no muss recipes that require only basic skills in the kitchen but produce magical and fun flavors. Such is the case of these scrumptious chocolate-covered bananas, or Chocobananos, that Latin American kids have been enjoying for decades. Continue Reading Sandra A. Gutierrez: A Tropical Vacation on a Stick

Categories Author blog entry/Cooking / Food/Guest Bloggers/Recipes
October 4, 2013

Taylor Mathis: Tailgating: The Social Events of the Fall

If you have never been to a tailgate in the South, you may not realize what goes into it. The event is much more than people standing in a parking lot before a football game. These events are a chance to reunite with old college friends, have a family reunion, and share great food and drink with those that you love. The common thread is that everyone there has a connection to that campus and wants to be with the ones they love to support their team. Continue Reading Taylor Mathis: Tailgating: The Social Events of the Fall

Categories Author blog entry/Cooking / Food/Guest Bloggers
October 2, 2013

David T. Gleeson: Irish Confederates and the Meaning of American Nationalism

As an immigrant, something I’m familiar with myself, one’s sense of identity is heightened by the immigration experience. In your new country, even when your language is the same as the natives, you suddenly you have an “accent,” your religion and culture are different, and you must adapt to new social and political realities. Immigrants then give us valuable insights, not only into their own changing identity, but also that of the host country. Irish immigrants in the South had to become Americans and Confederates. They had to negotiate the cultural traits they brought from Ireland with the demands of loyalty to their new home. And, it was this Irish cultural baggage which played the key role in binding them to the United States and the Confederacy Continue Reading David T. Gleeson: Irish Confederates and the Meaning of American Nationalism

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/European History/Guest Bloggers/History
September 30, 2013

Interview: Kathleen Purvis on Bourbon

Even after Prohibition was repealed, many areas of the South remained dry. So whiskey was hard to get and had a certain cache. Recipes that involved a little alcohol were not only tasty, they also implied a few things—they showed you had connections and maybe a bit of money to buy something. Continue Reading Interview: Kathleen Purvis on Bourbon

Categories Cooking / Food/Interviews
September 23, 2013

Tomas F. Summers Sandoval Jr.: Out of Many, Uno

At 10% of the U.S. electorate, Latino voters overwhelmingly (more than 70%) cast their ballots for the reelection of Barack Obama in 2012. Those numbers shed light on how Obama became the first U.S. President elected while losing the “white vote”, as they also signal the changing composition of the 21st-century United States. Continue Reading Tomas F. Summers Sandoval Jr.: Out of Many, Uno

Categories Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Latino Studies/Politics
September 19, 2013

Susan Ware: The Ongoing Battle of the Sexes

The footage shows not a player who was intentionally tanking a match, but one who was consistently and masterfully outplayed by a superior opponent, which Riggs admitted at the time and maintained right up until his death in 1995. The unsupported ESPN allegations have no place in sporting history. Continue Reading Susan Ware: The Ongoing Battle of the Sexes

Categories Author blog entry/Biography / Autobiography/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Sports/Video/Women's Studies
September 18, 2013

Tracy K’Meyer: The Ongoing Struggle for Civil Rights in Schools

The modern civil rights movement fought for racial equality and to create an interracial “beloved community.” People in the movement did not make a distinction between action in the schools, the voting booth, or the streets toward those goals. Education was another arena for fighting racism and securing equal resources and opportunity. Seeing school desegregation as an integral part of the civil rights movement reminds us that an equal education is a basic human right that has been fought for but not yet achieved, and that overcoming racism in the classroom as in the community remains a moral imperative. For many local people, like Suzy Post, in Louisville and Jefferson County, the civil rights movement continues because the struggle to protect desegregation and through it achieve educational equity and better human understanding has not yet been won. Continue Reading Tracy K’Meyer: The Ongoing Struggle for Civil Rights in Schools

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Civil Rights/Education/Guest Bloggers/History
September 17, 2013

Twelve Years a Slave: The Narrative Behind the Film

The film tells the story of Solomon Northrup (Ejiofor), a free man and fiddle-player from New York who was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in Louisiana. It explores Northrup’s efforts to retain his dignity in the face of inhumanity as he longs for the family he was taken from and hopes for freedom throughout time in the employ of three different masters, ranging from a kindly preacher (Benedict Cumberbatch) to a cruel plantation owner (Fassbender). Remarkably, and horrifically, the story is a true one. Continue Reading Twelve Years a Slave: The Narrative Behind the Film

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Biography / Autobiography/Film/History/Literature/Southern Studies
September 16, 2013

Interview: Sandra A. Gutierrez on Latin American Street Food

I mean, what’s not fun about dressing a sandwich with all sorts of condiments, until it becomes a tower of goodness? You have to figure out how to eat it without wearing it, but that’s another story. One of my favorite things about street food is that so much of it can be prepared in advance—which not only makes it easy for entertaining but also makes it a cinch to put dinner on the table every day. Continue Reading Interview: Sandra A. Gutierrez on Latin American Street Food

Categories Cooking / Food/Interviews
September 13, 2013

In Our Orbit: Author Voices On Air and Online

A roundup of authors making news this week: Ed Blum and Glenn Eskew on the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham bombing, Hester Blum offers tips for the academic job hunter, Sandra Gutierrez has a Twitter chat about Latin Street Food, and Blain Roberts looks at the Miss America pageant. Continue Reading In Our Orbit: Author Voices On Air and Online

Categories UNC Press News
September 11, 2013

David T. Gleeson: Immigrants and American Wars: The Irish Confederate Experience

Rather than becoming southern “under fire,” they became southern by misremembering, reimagining, and reinterpreting the real experience of being under fire. Continue Reading David T. Gleeson: Immigrants and American Wars: The Irish Confederate Experience

Categories American History/Author blog entry/Civil War/European History/Guest Bloggers/History
September 10, 2013

William Ferris: Comfort in My Mother’s Stories

Our daily conversations help me understand Mother’s story. Her long life is filled with tales, like a library with shelves of books. Each day we select a story that reminds me of who I am and why family and place are so important in my life. Continue Reading William Ferris: Comfort in My Mother’s Stories

Categories Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Southern Studies