Video: Sallie Ann Robinson on being Pat Conroy’s student on Daufuskie Island

In this video, Sallie Ann Robinson is interviewed about her experience as Pat Conroy’s student on Daufuskie Island and how her life has been changed since then. She says, “I got up every morning just wanting to go to school because this man was here with all this fun stuff to offer.” Continue Reading Video: Sallie Ann Robinson on being Pat Conroy’s student on Daufuskie Island

Tobe: Tracking down the storybook family

Where are they now? Historian Benjamin Filene seeks information about the people involved in the 1939 children’s book “Tobe,” about an African American sharecropping family in NC. Continue Reading Tobe: Tracking down the storybook family

UNC Press Fall Sale: New categories

New Fall sale categories: business history and southern history. Throughout the fall, we’re offering 50% off selected titles in the disciplines listed below. Enter 01SALE12 at checkout. Spend $75.00 and the shipping is free. Continue Reading UNC Press Fall Sale: New categories

Sarah E. Ruble: All Americans Are Missionaries

2012 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the first Protestant American foreign missionaries. Over the course of those years, the movement’s fortunes and its public presence have waxed and waned. In 1812, the movement boasted five missionaries sailing to the Indian subcontinent. One hundred years later, its most prominent members were recruited for diplomatic missions. Yet whatever the public perception of missionaries, their work raises significant questions, even for people who might have little interest in the movement itself. Continue Reading Sarah E. Ruble: All Americans Are Missionaries

William A. Link: Remembering Bill Friday

It’s not easy to write a biography of a living person, for a variety of reasons. Bill made it easy. I spent more than 40 hours interviewing him. He was unfailingly generous in offering his time, including a last round of interviews after I had written a draft of the book. We got to know each other well. I developed a habit of drinking Diet Cokes because that was what he always offered, and only recently have I shaken the habit. Continue Reading William A. Link: Remembering Bill Friday

NC Icons: NC State Fair, Pepsi, and Sweet Potatoes

Since we’re in the middle of the North Carolina State Fair (October 11-21), we’re featuring it for our NC Icon this week — along with Pepsi and sweet potatoes. The NC State Fair is number 63 on Our State magazine’s 100 North Carolina Icons list. Pepsi and sweet potatoes come in at numbers 21 and 95. The State Fair is held in Raleigh every October, and you can be sure to find North Carolina favorites like Pepsi and sweet Potatoes there. Continue Reading NC Icons: NC State Fair, Pepsi, and Sweet Potatoes

Douglas M. Orr: Reflections on Bill Friday

Like so many others, I was the beneficiary of Bill Friday’s support and mentorship over the span of my entire professional career. While there are countless features of the Bill Friday life that can he highlighted, I would like to recite two: his abiding love and knowledge of our state, and his common touch with people. Continue Reading Douglas M. Orr: Reflections on Bill Friday

Jean Dennison: Osage Nation Reform: From Colonial Entanglement to Citizen Engagement

Vann Bighorse, the director of the Osage Cultural Center, expressed the opinion that Congress could take a lesson from the Osage In-lon-shka dances. He had explained that during the dances, everything (especially political fighting) was put aside for those three weeks in June and everyone from the drum keeper to the cooks focused on making the whole thing run smoothly. Continue Reading Jean Dennison: Osage Nation Reform: From Colonial Entanglement to Citizen Engagement

Video: Glenn David Brasher talks to The Civil War Monitor

Glenn David Brasher, author of “The Peninsula Campaign & the Necessity of Emancipation,” talks to the Civil War Monitor about the important role of African Americans in the strategy and tactics of the Civil War. Continue Reading Video: Glenn David Brasher talks to The Civil War Monitor

Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey: The Christ-less Revolution

Jesus was part of the Revolution and formation of the United States, but not as much as one might expect. As a physical presence, he was almost completely absent. And in the language of law and legislation for the new republic, he was virtually as nonexistent. In comparison to how prominent Jesus would become in the United States of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Revolution and founding of the new nation were profoundly Christ-less. Continue Reading Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey: The Christ-less Revolution

Interview: Christopher Teuton on Cherokee Storytelling and the Turtle Island Liars’ Club

I was learning from my elders. This book is shaped by the questions I asked and by what the Liars’ Club wanted to teach me. My methodology in recording and writing the book was guided by a Cherokee way of sharing knowledge, which is that the one with something to learn should watch, listen, and ask questions when it’s appropriate. I think for me and the Liars’ Club the book represents a Cherokee way of doing research in the community and sharing knowledge with the wider community. We hope it provides a model that will inspire others. Continue Reading Interview: Christopher Teuton on Cherokee Storytelling and the Turtle Island Liars’ Club

Congratulations to Dylan C. Penningroth, 2012 MacArthur Fellow

Today we’re excited to announce that historian Dylan C. Penningroth has been awarded a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Penningroth is the author of The Claims of Kinfolk. Continue Reading Congratulations to Dylan C. Penningroth, 2012 MacArthur Fellow

Interview: C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa on Crooked Paths to Allotment

In Crooked Paths to Allotment, C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa complicates standard narratives of nineteenth century Native American history by uncovering the stories of individuals who contested federal Indian policy and proposed viable alternatives during a critical moment in its development. Continue Reading Interview: C. Joseph Genetin-Pilawa on Crooked Paths to Allotment

Miles Orvell: Main Street in the 21st Century

Travel across the U.S.A., from Maine to California, and sooner or later you’re bound to stop at a new Main Street-inspired mall. Along the way, you may also find yourself driving into a town with an actual historic Main Street that is struggling to assert its relevance in the age of malls and supermalls. After the postwar romance with the mega shopping mall—which drained the vitality out of small towns across the U.S.—Americans are gradually coming back to the idea of the small-scale community embodied in the Main Street model. Continue Reading Miles Orvell: Main Street in the 21st Century