August 26, 2013

Tobe: Charles Anderson Farrell Photographs Digitized in New Collection

Even with all the criteria Farrell needed to meet, the final product is wonderfully authentic. Farrell explained, “The children look natural and unposed because I spent far more time on the little game we played than on the photography. The photography was incidental, and I think that only a few times were the children aware of the camera.” Continue Reading Tobe: Charles Anderson Farrell Photographs Digitized in New Collection

Categories African American Studies/Art / Architecture/Juvenile/Literature/North Carolina/Photography
August 21, 2013

Michael H. Hunt: Obama’s Cairo, Then and Now

The Cold War, far from an aberration, built on a pattern that had become well established earlier in the century. Elected governments, Washington feared, might be swayed by popular passions or betrayed by their own immaturity. Coups whether in Iran in 1953 or in Egypt in 2013 paved the way for strongmen promising stability and accommodating U.S. interests. Continue Reading Michael H. Hunt: Obama’s Cairo, Then and Now

Categories Author blog entry/Columnists/Guest Bloggers/History/Michael H. Hunt/Political Science
August 20, 2013

Carolyn Herbst Lewis: Dropping the K-Bomb

In rejecting the evidence presented in the Kinsey volumes that contradicted their definitions of sexual health, medical professionals reinforced a brand of sexual citizenship that not only made full citizenship exclusively available to married heterosexuals with children, but also limited those couples’ sexual activities to a strict protocol. Continue Reading Carolyn Herbst Lewis: Dropping the K-Bomb

Categories Author blog entry/Gay / Lesbian Studies/Gender Studies/Guest Bloggers/Health / Medicine
August 19, 2013

Interview: Adrian Miller on Soul Food

The deep-fried delights, the rich repasts, and the sugary triumphs fall in line with the time-immemorial tendency to show off one’s best dishes to those outside one’s group. That celebration food is not meant to be the sum of the cuisine. Soul food has a strong tradition of making delectable dishes featuring vegetables and unprocessed ingredients. In fact, many of the celebrated and faddish “superfoods” that are good for your body—dark, leafy green vegetables and sweet potatoes, for example—have been soul food staples for centuries. Continue Reading Interview: Adrian Miller on Soul Food

Categories Cooking / Food/Interviews
August 15, 2013

Sarah Caroline Thuesen: Jim Crow’s Roots, Jim Crow’s Remedies

A historical examination of segregated schooling in North Carolina warns against a hasty retreat from efforts to create diverse classrooms and equitable opportunity. Continue Reading Sarah Caroline Thuesen: Jim Crow’s Roots, Jim Crow’s Remedies

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Author blog entry/Education/Guest Bloggers/History/North Carolina
August 14, 2013

New Omnibus E-book: Nortin Hadler’s 4-Volume Healthcare Collection

This collection of Nortin Hadler’s definitive works on the state of healthcare in America today—collected here for the first time in a 4-volume Omnibus E-Book—is a must-have for anyone interested in navigating the complex issues surrounding their healthcare, and improving their well-being as they age. Continue Reading New Omnibus E-book: Nortin Hadler’s 4-Volume Healthcare Collection

Categories Health / Medicine/UNC Press News
August 13, 2013

Glenn David Brasher on Preserving the Battleground at Williamsburg

When rumors of “development” encroach upon areas with rich historical backgrounds, they most likely will find a wall of resistance waiting. This is the current situation in the Virginia Peninsula, where the site of the Battle of Williamsburg is now vulnerable to such an unfortunate fate. Continue Reading Glenn David Brasher on Preserving the Battleground at Williamsburg

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Civil War/History
August 12, 2013

Tracy E. K’Meyer: Busing and the Desegregation of Louisville Schools

For historians of school desegregation, Louisville’s story challenges a narrative that has been dominated by resistance, disillusion, and failure. For citizens, these stories remind us how our predecessors struggled for equality in education and inspire us to keep up a fight that is far from over. Continue Reading Tracy E. K’Meyer: Busing and the Desegregation of Louisville Schools

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Author blog entry/Education/Guest Bloggers/History
August 6, 2013

William Ferris: A Little Bit of Story in Everything

My grandfather loved to tell me the long, frightening story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. When he finished telling the tale, I would ask him, “Grandad, tell it again.” And he would patiently tell me the story again. No memory from my childhood burns brighter than this story and its telling by my grandfather. Continue Reading William Ferris: A Little Bit of Story in Everything

Categories Art / Architecture/Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Literature/Southern Studies
August 5, 2013

Interview: Taylor Mathis on The Southern Tailgating Cookbook

Many tailgaters will “eat their competition” by serving the opposing mascot on the game’s menu. In The Southern Tailgating Cookbook, there are more suggestions and recipes that will show how to team-theme your tailgate and “eat the competition” on game day. Continue Reading Interview: Taylor Mathis on The Southern Tailgating Cookbook

Categories Cooking / Food/Interviews
August 1, 2013

Tomas F. Summers Sandoval Jr.: Community History in the Path of “Progress”

Manufacturing jobs have all but disappeared as economic progress has been linked to an expanding financial sector as well as other “intellectual industries” like technology. This shift necessitates a robust service economy of workers who empty the trash, serve coffee, or perform other household tasks for those who are willing to pay. But those workers can no longer afford to live in the city. Continue Reading Tomas F. Summers Sandoval Jr.: Community History in the Path of “Progress”

Categories Author blog entry/Guest Bloggers/Latino Studies
July 30, 2013

Rebecca Sharpless on Paula Deen, Dora Charles, and the History of Southern Kitchens

Of course, white employers typically believed that their cooks loved them and cooked for them out of that love. When Ms. Deen claimed that she and Ms. Charles were “soul sisters,” she fell squarely into the tradition of declaring an employee to be just like a member of the family. Continue Reading Rebecca Sharpless on Paula Deen, Dora Charles, and the History of Southern Kitchens

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Cooking / Food/History
July 26, 2013

Tiffany A. Sippial: The 26th of July Movement: Remembering Failure, Celebrating Victory

Not only were the rebels young (“just like us” my students find themselves saying), but they actually failed. Government snipers shot many of the young rebels on sight, and those who survived were charged with treason and imprisoned on the Isle of Pines. In a surprising plot twist, however, the audacious Cuban rebels recast their military failure as a propaganda victory by claiming the date of the attack as the name of their movement—the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7). Continue Reading Tiffany A. Sippial: The 26th of July Movement: Remembering Failure, Celebrating Victory

Categories Author blog entry/Cuba/Guest Bloggers/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Politics
July 25, 2013

Video: Bland Simpson on NC Bookwatch

In Two Captains from Carolina, Bland Simpson twines together the lives of two accomplished nineteenth-century mariners from North Carolina–one African American, one Irish American. Though Moses Grandy (ca. 1791- ca. 1850) and John Newland Maffitt Jr. (1819-1886) never met, their stories bring to vivid life the saga of race and maritime culture in the antebellum and Civil War-era South. With his lyrical prose and inimitable voice, Bland Simpson offers readers a grand tale of the striving human spirit and the great divide that nearly sundered the nation.

In this interview on NC Bookwatch, Simpson speaks with host D.G. Martin about Two Captains from Carolina and the fascinating lives led by Grandy, former slave turned Boston abolitionist, and Maffit, a midshipman in the U.S. Navy at age thirteen turned legendary blockade runner. Simpson also explains his reasons for contrasting these two men with each other in this “nonfiction novel.” Continue Reading Video: Bland Simpson on NC Bookwatch

Categories Civil War/History/Interviews/North Carolina/Southern Studies/Video
July 23, 2013

Why This Publisher Isn’t Disappointed by the Apple eBook Verdict

Additionally, the eBook business appears to be stabilizing. After several years of triple digit growth and prognostications that eBooks would take over up to 80% of the book market, we just saw a report from the Association of American Publishers that for March of this year (the last month for which we have full accounting), eBook sales compromised 25.5% of the overall trade market, up a mere 1.5% over the previous year. It now appears pretty clear that the old codex is going to be a more durable format than the compact disc, or the VHS cassette, or even the newspaper. As the New Yorker’s James Surowiecki pointed out in a recent column, “the truth is that the book is an exceptionally good piece of technology—easy to read, portable, durable, and inexpensive.” As long as physical books make up the considerable majority of the market, bookstores will survive and some will even flourish, giving publishers the type of robust marketplace they need to keep their businesses healthy. Continue Reading Why This Publisher Isn’t Disappointed by the Apple eBook Verdict

Categories The Book Biz/UNC Press News
July 16, 2013

Interview: Kathleen Purvis on Pecans

I’m a fan of the slide-style of nut cracker: You place a nut in a trough, pull back a spring-loaded weight, and let it go. You tend to get more halves that way. There’s a bit of mess from all the shells, so I usually do it outside, spreading out newspaper to catch the shells. You also can use some of the shells to spread in a garden. Continue Reading Interview: Kathleen Purvis on Pecans

Categories Cooking / Food/Interviews
July 11, 2013

Video: David Cecelski on NC Bookwatch

In an interview with North Carolina Bookwatch host D. G. Martin, Cecelski describes the many threads he followed to unlock the mystery of Abraham Galloway, now proudly identifying him as a part of the pantheon of North Caorlina’s greatest heroes. Cecelski delves into the leadership Galloway exerted before, during, and after the Civil War. Continue Reading Video: David Cecelski on NC Bookwatch

Categories African American History/African American Studies/Civil War/History/Interviews/Video