For the month of September, to coincide with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History annual meeting September 24-28 in Memphis, we have lowered the e-book […]
Why the Nazis? A minute with Peter Fritzsche
Between Two Homelands: Letters across the Borders of Nazi Germany provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of one family living during the tumultuous years of World War Two. The book, […]
Happy “Bird”-day
Jazz innovator Charlie “Bird” Parker was born on August 29, 1920 in Kansas City. Before his death at age 34, Parker transformed jazz with harmonic creativity and complex melodic saxophone lines. […]
The meaning of Diana
Sunday, August 31 marks the seventeenth anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. The event became one of those “I remember just where I was when I heard” moments. The car crash […]
UIP music titles honored with ARSC Awards
Several University of Illinois Press books were honored with the 2014 Awards for Excellence from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections. The winners will be acknowledged at the awards ceremony at […]
Happy Women’s Equality Day
Today, the enlightened everywhere celebrate Women’s Equality Day, commemorating not only the Nineteenth Amendment giving half of American humanity the right to vote outside of Wyoming, but recognizing all of […]
Happy birthday Althea Gibson
Groundbreaking athlete Althea Gibson was born on August 25, 1927. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Althea Gibson won 11 Grand Slam tournaments. She was also the […]
Happy Birthday to video and film innovator C. Francis Jenkins
Born on August 22, 1867, inventor C. Francis Jenkins was an innovator of early film and television technology. One of Jenkins’s inventions, the Phantoscope projector, led to today’s large-screen movies. However, […]
Ray Bradbury and the Twilight Zone
Ray Bradbury had made his name fusing science fiction with an abiding concern for humanity. What he had done in print, Rod Serling brought to early television. The anthology series The […]
Lincoln vs. Douglas, tale of the tape
On August 21, 1858 upstart challenger Abraham Lincoln entered into the first of seven debates with incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas in Ottawa, Illinois. Lincoln was challenging Douglas to represent Illinois […]
“James Brown is a freedom I created for humanity”
The release of the film Get On Up in early August rekindled interest in the life and music of James Brown. One of the most staggeringly influential entertainers in American […]
Cheryl LaRoche: Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad
Cheryl Janifer LaRoche‘s book, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad, examines the “geography of resistance” and tells the powerful and inspiring story of African Americans ensuring their own liberation […]