Book on New Orleans Is Finalist for Liberty Legacy Foundation Award

NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE PROMISES has been named a finalist for the 2008 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award given by the Organization of American Historians. This annual award recognizes the best book on any historical aspect of the struggle for civil rights in the United States from the nation's founding to the present.

In the book, author Kent Germany—a Louisiana native and a former New Orleans resident—looks back at the Great Society era of the 1960s and 1970s to offer a detailed look at one of the greatest transformations in the city's history. He tells how a few thousand New Orleanians put their faith in God and American progress to the test as they sought to conquer poverty, confront racism, establish civic order, and expand the economy.

In a review of the book in the Journal of American History, Michael K. Brown said that, "this balanced case study raises new questions about the outcome of the War on Poverty and the persistence of racial inequality in the twenty-first century. . . . This is a fine study that anyone concerned with racial justice in America should read."

Short Takes

Recent interviews:
Sudye Cauthen, author of SOUTHERN COMFORTS, in the Gainesville Sun.

Margot Singer, author of THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT, on Next Book.

Dave Kaufman, author of PEACHTREE CREEK, on the Georgia Podcast Network.

Recent reviews:
CIRCLING HOME in the Charleston Post and Courier.

THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT in the Miami Herald, Columbus Dispatch, and Venus.

DIEHARD REBELS in the Charleston Post and Courier.

AMERICAN WARS, AMERICAN PEACE in the Mobile Press-Register.

TELL BORGES IF YOU SEE HIM in the the Providence Journal.

PHARSALIA; GREENBACKERS, KNIGHTS OF LABOR, AND POPULISTS; EVERYBODY WAS BLACK DOWN THERE; THE NATION'S REGION; and NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE PROMISES, all in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of American History.

In the news:
DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES OF GEORGIA AND THE SOUTHEAST got a nod from Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Walter Reeves.

Columnist Bill Maxwell mentioned DEEP IN OUR HEARTS in his piece about how recent presidential campaigning has politicized the history of the civil rights movement. Maxwell also mentions the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, whose case is the subject of FROM SELMA TO SORROW.

Three RINGING EAR poets recently read their work at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Co. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer called the book a "fine volume of verse."

Stephanie M. H. Camp, coeditor of NEW STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SLAVERY, is featured as a “top young historian” on the History News Network.

Recent awards:
John Lane’s CIRCLING HOME and Sydney Landon Plum’s SOLITARY GOOSE are in the running for the 2008 Orion Book Award.

Three of our books were recognized for outstanding design in the 2008 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show organized by the Association of American University Presses: WRITING MATTERS, designed by Mindy Basinger Hill, won in the "Scholarly Typographic" category; DOUGH, designed by Erin Kirk New, won in the "Trade Typographic" category; and DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES OF GEORGIA AND THE SOUTHEAST, designed by Mindy Basinger Hill, won in the "Reference" category.

GEORGIA'S FRONTIER WOMEN, by Ben Marsh, has won the Georgia Historical Society's 2008 Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award for the best book in Georgia history published in 2007.

A GATHERING OF MATTER / A MATTER OF GATHERING by Dawn Lundy Martin has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.

The Poetry Foundation picked DEPTH THEOLOGY for their end of the year "best of" list.

World View, the international program for educators at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has named GROUNDED GLOBALISM by James L. Peacock as its Book of the Year.

We get blogged:
June Hall McCash, author of JEKYLL ISLAND'S EARLY YEARS has a new blog.

The blog of Galway, Ireland's public libraries recently featured ANOTHER BEAUTY.

MOTORING got a nice mention in Lincoln Highway News.

Best Book in Georgia History

Ben Marsh has won the Georgia Historical Society's 2008 Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award for his book GEORGIA'S FRONTIER WOMEN: FEMALE FORTUNES IN A SOUTHERN COLONY. The Bell Award, which is given annually to the best book in Georgia history published in the previous year, is named in honor of Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell in recognition of their contribution to the recording of Georgia's history. The award will be presented at the Society's 275th Birthday Bash and Awards Gala on Saturday, February 16, 2008, in Savannah.

"Ben Marsh has given us a fresh and important look not only at women's changing economic and cultural worlds in colonial Georgia, but at the dynamic and complex nature of colonial Georgia as a whole," Michele Gillespie, Professor of History at Wake Forest University said of the book. "Given its scope and its ambitiousness, GEORGIA'S FRONTIER WOMEN is certain to become one of the most authoritative books on colonial Georgia for some time."

Book of the Year

World View, the international program for educators at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has named GROUNDED GLOBALISM by James L. Peacock as its Book of the Year. World View's mission is to "help schools and colleges prepare students to succeed in an interconnected world in which the rules have changed for everyone."

In its citation World Views notes that, "if there were a dictionary entry for 'global Southerner,' Peacock’s photo would certainly appear right beside it." As the citation goes on to say, Peacock "asks the right questions and proposes a method for thinking about possible answers. Read it and open a discussion in your own community about our global/local lives together, and what the future holds."