The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Agriculture’s Energy: The Trouble with Ethanol in Brazil’s Green Revolution by Thomas D. Rogers, available now wherever books are sold. From 1900 to 2000, in the midst of dramatic population growth, Brazil experienced a neat demographic inversion. At the same time that it grew by a factor of ten, from 17… Continue Reading Agriculture’s Energy: Introduction
Today marks eight years since the beginning of the ongoing Flint water contamination crisis. The following is an excerpt from Toxic Debt: An Environmental Justice History of Detroit by Josiah Rector, officially on sale tomorrow wherever ebooks and books are sold. Between 2014 and 2019, the City of Detroit shut off water for over 141,000 residential accounts, denying more than… Continue Reading Detroit and Toxic Debt
After two years away, UNC Press is excited to be exhibiting in-person at ASEH 2022 – we hope you’ll stop by our booth! And if you can’t join us in-person, please visit our virtual booth! And be sure to check out our Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges series. Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges publishes works of environmental history that explore the cross-border movements… Continue Reading 2022 American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting
As you may already now, February is Black History Month. The history of black people should be celebrated at all times, but in February, we shine an extra special light on it. Black History Month began as Negro History Week in February 1926, created by historian Carter G. Woodson. In 1976, the celebration was expanded to a month. We’ll be… Continue Reading Black History Month 2022 Reading List: Black Resistance
Last month, UNC Press author of Saving the Wild South Georgann Eubanks sat with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation to discuss her book. The American South is famous for its astonishingly rich biodiversity. In this book, Georgann Eubanks takes a wondrous trek from Alabama to North Carolina to search out native plants that are endangered and wavering on the edge of erasure.… Continue Reading “Island Wildlife Reads: Saving the Wild South with Georgann Eubanks”, Author Georgann Eubanks speaks with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation
The following is a guest blog post from Georgann Eubanks, author of Saving The Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction. The American South is famous for its astonishingly rich biodiversity. In this book, Georgann Eubanks takes a wondrous trek from Alabama to North Carolina to search out native plants that are endangered and wavering on the… Continue Reading Author Book Events in the Time of Covid
We hope you’ve got your hot chocolate and eggnog ready for this winter season! Today we wanted to share some holiday gift recommendations from our staff. Don’t forget, we’re having a Holiday Sale too! Save 40% on any of these great stocking stuffers and all of our other UNC Press print books. You’ll also receive free shipping on orders of… Continue Reading Staff Picks: 2021 UNC Press Holiday Gift Guide
Happy tenth anniversary to University Press Week! This year’s Association of University Presses annual celebration, running from November 8-12, “welcomes all to ‘Keep UP’ with a decade of excellence and innovation.” For UP Week’s annual blog tour, today’s specific theme, Innovate/Collaborate, today’s bloggers describe an innovation or a collaboration in the last decade that they are particularly proud of or that will provide a model for… Continue Reading Saving The Wild South: Yadkin River Goldenrod and Heller’s Blazing Star
Last month, UNC Press author of Saving the Wild South Georgann Eubanks and Cynthia Kaufman held a conversation for the 33rd annual Southern Festival of Books. Georgann and Cynthia share how to preserve disappearing fauna and take a more active role in combating climate change at the local level. Climate change headlines tell of devastating floods and wildfires, but there… Continue Reading Authors Georgann Eubanks and Cynthia Kaufman in Conversation at the Southern Festival of Books
The stories of Indian laborers often feel secondary to the spaces and stories of the Franciscan fathers, despite the fact that the missions were primarily centers of Indian work. The fathers hoped that productivity would lead to a surer conversion while they also made a profit, especially from the products of cattle in the form of hides and tallow that they sold to British and American ships along the Pacific coast. There are certainly signs of this work throughout the missions—from tallow vats to tanneries—and La Purisma stands out to me as a site that focuses on the type of work that its mostly Chumash inhabitants did on a daily basis. Beyond the missions, Indians as workers are even less visible in public presentations of California’s historical memory. Vaquero parades, rodeos, and festivals are rare, and the role of Indians in those festivals is small to nonexistent.
There are a few likely reasons for this omission. Continue Reading John Ryan Fischer: Indian Cowboys in California
Today we remember the late B. W. Wells, plant ecologist, conservationist, and author of The Natural Gardens of North Carolina. On March 26th, Rock Cliff Farm, Wells’s place of retirement, is celebrating B.W. Wells Heritage Day, with tours, activities, giveaways, and exhibits that recall the life and work of this pioneering ecologist. His work lives on through this event and… Continue Reading Celebrating B.W. Wells
There are about 35 million acres of beautiful mountains that extend from northern Virginia down to north Georgia. They’ve been going through a glorious transformation of color over the last few weeks. If you’ve never visited the Appalachians in fall, you’re missing out on a breathtaking treat from nature. In Mountain Nature: A Seasonal Natural History of the Southern Appalachians,… Continue Reading Interview: Jennifer Frick-Ruppert on Appalachian ecology
We are happy as clams—and horses and chickens and goats and all creatures, really—to announce that today, at the American Society for Environmental History’s annual meeting in Portland, our author Carolyn Merchant, receives the Distinguished Scholar Award for her significant contribution to environmental history scholarship. Professor Merchant has focused, throughout her career, on human interactions with the natural environment—how we… Continue Reading Congrats to Carolyn Merchant, winner of ASEH’s Distinguished Scholar Award
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