book – College of Arts & Sciences

History Professors Publish Book About Pandemic Year and American Society

August 24, 2022

From the August 2022 Desktop News | For most people, the events of 2020 may run together, becoming a long year of several major world events wrapped up into one another: a pandemic, a social justice movement, and more. But Drs. Margaret Peacock and Erik Peterson, both history faculty members at The University of Alabama, can pinpoint each day’s events in their new book, A Deeper Sickness: Journal of America in the Pandemic Year (Boston: Beacon Press). The book explores […]

The “Top 40 Democracy” of Popular Music

January 14, 2015

From the January 2015 Desktop News | A former music critic, Dr. Eric Weisbard has always been interested in connecting the dots of popular culture. When critics began talking about “rockism,” the idea of rock as a biased way of valuing some music and not others, and “poptimism,” the idea that commercial music of all kinds should be celebrated for its diversity, he thought both ideas were too simplistic, so he wrote a book about it, using a historical approach […]

“Cold War Dixie” Wins Best Book Award

December 17, 2014

From the December 2014 edition of Desktop News | A book examining the impact of the Cold War on the U.S. South, written by a College of Arts and Sciences historian, was recently recognized by the Southern Historical Association as the best book in southern economic or business history published in the last two years. The Bennett H. Wall Award recognized Dr. Kari Frederickson, professor and chair of the Department of History, for Cold War Dixie: Militarization and Modernization in […]

Author Wins Public Health Award

October 10, 2014

From the October 2014 edition of Desktop News | A book documenting the link between contamination from a major chemical company and Anniston’s extensive civil rights history recently won an award for contributing to the history of public health. Dr. Ellen Spears, an assistant professor in New College and the Department of American Studies, is the 2014 recipient of the Arthur J. Viseltear prize given by the American Public Health Association’s Medical Care Section. The award recognized Spears’ book, Baptized […]

Anniston PCB Pollution Focus of New Book

April 11, 2014

From the April 2014 Desktop News | With Anniston as the backdrop, Dr. Ellen Spears, assistant professor in New College and the Department of American Studies, explores environmental justice in her new book, Baptized in PCBs, which was released April 7. Though focused on the 1990s legal battle between Anniston residents and the agrochemical company Monsanto, which dumped cancer-causing chemicals into the city’s working-class west side, Spears also addresses broader topics, such as significant themes in the social history of […]