University of Tennessee Press

"DECISIONS OF THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN is an excellent addition to the relatively sparse body of work covering one of the major campaigns of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi." Thanks, ECW, for the great review! https://lnkd.in/edpNSET2

Out tomorrow! Featuring eleven previously published essays, BALL IN MY HANDS: ESSAYS ON BLACK ATHLETES, RACE, AND AMERICAN CULTURE weaves storytelling and scholarly discussion together in its exploration of well-known figures like Olympic decathlon champion Milt Campbell, professional tennis icon Arthur Ashe, Olympic sprinter Vince Matthews, civil rights activist Harry Edwards, basketball legend Kobe Bryant, and more. With an original introduction and a foreword from Damion L. Thomas, Museum Curator of Sports at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, this volume is more than a collection of biographies on individual athletes or write-ups on athletic institutions—rather, it offers a wide-ranging discussion of the history and meaning of African American sport that will engage not only scholars of African American history and sport history, but educators, sports enthusiasts, and general readers alike. Pick up a copy for the sports lover in your life on our site!

Next week, come by Hodges Library on Wednesday or the Art + Architecture Building on Thursday to check out this year's Book, Jacket, & Journal Show from the Association of University Presses! UT Press is proud to have placed a book cover in this year's show—WHITE ICE by Thomas Aiello, designed by our very own Kelly Gray!

Out today! Completed in 1962 and published here for the first time, A THOUSAND WEDDINGS: THE MEMOIR OF HOPE HART OF WEST TENNESSEE offers a firsthand account of a rapidly changing West Tennessee and its surrounding regions during the early twentieth century. Hart paints a vivid picture of life during this time, including rich descriptions of clothing (especially wedding attire), food, transportation, and attitudes toward religion, race, education, and marriage. Pick up a paperback copy for yourself on our site.

Looking forward to seeing all our friends at the Appalachian Studies Association conference!

Thanks, Civil War Books & Authors, for this thoughtful review of DECISIONS OF THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN by Michael Lang! https://lnkd.in/ebRNbeXB

Thanks for making FRESHWATER SPONGES OF TENNESSEE the # 1 New Release on Amazon for invertebrate zoology books!!

Out now! FRESHWATER SPONGES OF TENNESSEE by John Copeland and Stan Kunigelis explores a unique but important class of animals that may be unfamiliar to many readers. The volume provides comprehensive information about sponges in Tennessee waterways, vastly updating both the scientific community and the reading public on sponge biodiversity and conservation. The wide accessibility of freshwater sponges in lakes and streams makes for exciting and informative field trips for students and teachers. The detailed descriptions of sponge species, maps of where they have been found, color photographs from the field, and scans of electron micrographs make Freshwater Sponges of Tennessee an excellent classroom textbook or exploratory field guide for trips to Tennessee’s magnificent waterways. Order your copy on our site or wherever books are sold!

Attention readers! We have THREE excellent new UT Press titles out today wherever books are sold. In "Contentious Unions: Black Baptist Schools and White Money in the Jim Crow South," Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews interweaves the stories of the founding and development of Richmond Theological Seminary (Virginia), Central City College (Macon, Georgia), and American Baptist Theological Seminary (Nashville, Tennessee)—colleges that saw challenges, complexities, and hard-won accomplishments in the Post-Reconstruction era. Her study begins just after the Civil War, when one of these institutions provided educational opportunities for newly freed slaves, and follows the fortunes of the schools through the 1960s. In "Exploring Gender in Vernacular Architecture," Jessica Ellen Sewell considers the gender of those who create and shape spaces, how gender ideology contributes to and manifests itself in built form, and what research methods make the observation of gendered experience possible. She discusses single-gender, mixed-gender, and queer spaces, providing a comprehensive look at how gender influences the design and construction of those spaces, how those spaces are used, and the relationship between gender and the broader architectural landscape. In her study, Sewell also provides an expansive view of how gender intersects with other categories of power and difference, such as race, class, and age, and how this intersectionality contributes to the design and use of built spaces. Finally, "Decisions of the Red River Campaign" is the twenty-second in a series of books that explores the critical decisions of major campaigns and battles of the Civil War. By the time of the Red River Campaign, which occurred between March 10 and May 22, 1864, Federal victory in the American Civil War was nearly assured. This final Union offensive in the trans-Mississippi theater was launched to capture Shreveport, a strategic river port and Confederate military complex. The fall of Shreveport would split Confederate forces, allowing the Federals to encircle and destroy the Confederate Army in western Louisiana and southern Arkansas as well as open a gateway to an invasion of Texas. But the dense piney woods and swamps of Louisiana made for difficult maneuvering, and both sides made severe tactical mistakes, leading General William Tecumseh Sherman to declare the Red River Campaign “one damn blunder from beginning to end.”