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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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