November 26, 2012

M. Todd Bennett: How and Why Humphrey Bogart, in Casablanca, Taught American Moviegoers to Risk Their Necks for Others’ Well-Being

Today marks the 70th anniversary of Casablanca’s world premier on November 26, 1942. In the following post, M. Todd Bennett, author of One World, Big Screen: Hollywood, the Allies, and World War II, reveals what fans may not know about the movie, widely considered among the best ever made. Continue Reading M. Todd Bennett: How and Why Humphrey Bogart, in Casablanca, Taught American Moviegoers to Risk Their Necks for Others’ Well-Being

Categories American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Cultural Studies/Film/Guest Bloggers/History
November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving Excerpt from “The Happy Table of Eugene Walter”

Now I’ll have certain cooks shouting, “Heresy!” Most really great cooks do not put any stuffing in the bird IF they plan to utilize the remains in the next days for the great stews, gumbos, salads, etc., that are based on the carcass. IF your family is going to finish off the bird the first day, by all means stuff. But, Oh, Heavens, scraping out the nasty bits of stuffing if you want to use the carcass is a problem. Continue Reading Thanksgiving Excerpt from “The Happy Table of Eugene Walter”

Categories Cooking / Food/Excerpts/Recipes
November 19, 2012

Elizabeth Keckley in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”

Spielberg based more than 40 of his characters on historical figures; included in this group is Elizabeth Keckley, an enslaved woman whose 1868 book (Behind the Scenes, Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House) UNC Press and the UNC Library republished last year through the DocSouth Books program. Continue Reading Elizabeth Keckley in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln”

Categories African American History/African American Studies/American History/Civil War/History
November 16, 2012

University Press Week Blog Tour: John Sherer on returning to university press after years in NY trade publishing

While there’s no doubt that the print runs and advances are smaller here, the world of university press publishing is hardly less complicated than its corporate cousins; nor is it less open to risk and reward. In fact, the challenges that university presses face are leading to a new spirit of entrepreneurship and putting a spotlight on the critical role they play in the academic and publishing ecosystems. Continue Reading University Press Week Blog Tour: John Sherer on returning to university press after years in NY trade publishing

Categories Events/The Book Biz/UNC Press News
November 14, 2012

Excerpt: Decolonizing Museums, by Amy Lonetree

One of the most vivid memories of my experience in the museum world—and one that has shaped both my understanding of collaboration and the significance of objects to Indigenous communities—took place in 1995 at the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS). As an exhibit researcher working on Families, an exhibition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities focusing on Minnesota families that opened at MHS in 1995, one of my responsibilities was to locate a Native American family to be featured in the exhibition. Continue Reading Excerpt: Decolonizing Museums, by Amy Lonetree

Categories Anthropology/Archaeology/Excerpts/History/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies
November 13, 2012

Interview: Lori Rotskoff and Laura L. Lovett, editors of When We Were Free to Be

Lori Rotskoff and Laura L. Lovett, editors of When We Were Free to Be: Looking Back at a Children’s Classic and the Difference It Made discuss the legacy of Free to Be…You and Me after 40 years. Continue Reading Interview: Lori Rotskoff and Laura L. Lovett, editors of When We Were Free to Be

Categories American Studies/Gender Studies/Interviews/Sociology/Women's Studies
November 12, 2012

Celebrating the first annual University Press Week!

Welcome to the first annual University Press Week! Taking place November 11-17, 2012, University Press Week highlights the extraordinary work of university presses and their many contributions to culture, the academy, and an informed society. It is sponsored by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP). Continue Reading Celebrating the first annual University Press Week!

Categories Events/The Book Biz/UNC Press News
November 8, 2012

Video: Elizabeth Leonard talks to The Civil War Monitor

In this video, Elizabeth Leonard talks to the Civil War Monitor about Joseph Holt. She says Joseph Holt is “a very much forgotten personage from our historical past, and he’s someone who I think is probably the most important people from Lincoln’s administration who has been forgotten about.” Continue Reading Video: Elizabeth Leonard talks to The Civil War Monitor

Categories American History/Civil War/History/Video
November 7, 2012

Fall sale wrap-up: new categories 50% off, sale ends soon!

Announcing our last four sale subjects, all at 50% off, with free shipping for orders over $75 for the next two weeks. Continue Reading Fall sale wrap-up: new categories 50% off, sale ends soon!

Categories African American Studies/American History/American Studies/Art / Architecture/Biography / Autobiography/Business/Civil War/Craft/History/Latino Studies/Literature/Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Political Science/Religion/Sale/Southern Studies/UNC Press News/Women's Studies
November 6, 2012

Interview: Nicole Fabricant on Mobilizing Bolivia’s Displaced

Mobility is a central trope in the book because it informed my thinking about indigeneity and movement building in Bolivia. I realized that in order to effectively capture the Landless Peasant Movement’s ( Movimiento Sin Tierra/MST) organizational strategies, I would have to be in constant motion. I traveled with MST activists on the back of agricultural trucks for nearly 20 hours from the city to their communities, lived in two MST agro-ecological communities, traversed regional spaces, as well as national and international spaces of organizing. The life of an organizer is in constant motion and, as an ethnographer, I too had to be constantly traveling. Continue Reading Interview: Nicole Fabricant on Mobilizing Bolivia’s Displaced

Categories Anthropology/Interviews/Latin American/Caribbean Hist./Native Amer./Indigenous Studies/Sociology
November 5, 2012

Interview: Daniel W. Patterson on The True Image

A thousand unique gravestones cluster around old Presbyterian churches in the piedmont of the two Carolinas and in central Pennsylvania. Most are the vulnerable legacy of the Bigham family, Scotch Irish stonecutters whose workshop near Charlotte created the earliest surviving art of British settlers in the region. In The True Image, Daniel Patterson documents the craftsmanship of this group and the current appearance of the stones. In two hundred of his photographs, he records these stones for future generations and compares their iconography and inscriptions with those of other early monuments in the United States, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Continue Reading Interview: Daniel W. Patterson on The True Image

Categories American History/American Studies/Art / Architecture/folklore/History/Interviews/North Carolina/Religion
November 1, 2012

M. Todd Bennett: When Behaviorism Went to the Movies

Developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, movies quickly arose to become the cultural centerpiece, especially during Hollywood’s “golden era” of the 1930s and ’40s. In 1941, 85 million Americans—85 million, more than three-fifths of the overall U.S. population, which totaled 131 million at the time—attended movie theaters each week. Cinema’s remarkable popularity led observers to conclude that movies strongly influenced impressionable theatergoers. Continue Reading M. Todd Bennett: When Behaviorism Went to the Movies

Categories American History/American Studies/Author blog entry/Film/Guest Bloggers/History
October 31, 2012

Congratulations to James Sweet, winner of the 2012 Frederick Douglass Book Prize

We are happy to announce UNC Press author James Sweet, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, has been selected as the winner of the 2012 Frederick Douglass Book Prize for his book, Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World. Continue Reading Congratulations to James Sweet, winner of the 2012 Frederick Douglass Book Prize

Categories Africa & African Diaspora/African American History/African American Studies/American History/Awards/European History/History/Latin American/Caribbean Hist.
October 30, 2012

North Carolina Icons: The Brown Mountain Lights

This week we’re featuring number 79 from Our State magazine’s 100 North Carolina Icons list: the Brown Mountain Lights. Unexplained lights often appear at Brown Mountain, hovering in the air when the weather is right. Our State writes, “Your best chance at catching the Brown Mountain Lights is Milepost 310 along the Blue Ridge Parkway, at the Brown Mountain Overlook along Highway 181, or from the top of Table Rock.” There have been various explanations for the lights, from scientific to legends and ghost stories. Today we have some suggested books of Carolina ghost stories. Continue Reading North Carolina Icons: The Brown Mountain Lights

Categories Fiction/folklore/Literature/North Carolina/Travel