Jesse Helms (1921–2008) dominated the political landscape of North Carolina during the last half of the twentieth century. Though Helms’s thirty years in the US Senate are most remembered for what he opposed rather than what he achieved, he was a central figure in modern conservativism.In this concise interpretive biography, William A. Link centers Helms in the political realignment of the late twentieth-century South and the national ascendance of modern conservatism. Helms helped...

William Link’s account of the transformation of Virginia’s country schools between 1870 and 1920 fills important gaps in the history of education and the social history of the South. His theme is the impact of localism and community on the processes of public education — first as a motive force in the spread of schooling, then as a powerful factor that collided with the goals of urban reformers.After the Civil War, localism dominated every dimension of education in rural Virginia a...

Arthur Link (1920-1998) was one of the great historians of his generation, a prolific author with a wide following inside and outside the profession. For many years the foremost authority on Woodrow Wilson, he wrote a five-volume biography of the president and edited a sixty-nine volume edition of Wilson’s papers.Margaret Link (1918-1996), his wife and fellow North Carolinian, was the emotional core of the family. As an activist, she helped form an interdenominational crisis minist...

Did You Know?This book is available as a Wiley E-Text.The Wiley E-Text is a complete digital version of the text that makes time spent studying more efficient.Course materials can be accessed on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device—so that learning can take place anytime, anywhere.A more affordable alternative to traditional print, the Wiley E-Text creates a flexible user experience:...

Few North Carolinians have been as well known or as widely respected as William Friday (1920–2012). The former president of the University of North Carolina remained prominent in public affairs in the state and elsewhere throughout his life and ranked as one of the most important American university presidents of the post–World War II era. In the second edition of this comprehensive biography, William Link traces Friday’s long and remarkable career and commemorates his legendary life.

Focusing on the cultural conflicts between social reformers and southern communities, William Link presents an important reinterpretation of the origins and impact of progressivism in the South. He shows that a fundamental clash of values divided reformers and rural southerners, ultimately blocking the reforms. His book, based on extensive archival research, adds a new dimension to the study of American reform movements.The new group of social reformers that emerged near the end of...

Frank Porter Graham (1886–1972) was one of the most consequential white southerners of the twentieth century. Born in Fayetteville and raised in Charlotte, Graham became an active and popular student leader at the University of North Carolina. After earning a graduate degree from Columbia University and serving as a marine during World War I, he taught history at UNC, and in 1930, he became the university’s fifteenth president. Affectionately known as “Dr. Frank,” Graham spent two decades ...

After conquering Atlanta in the summer of 1864 and occupying it for two months, Union forces laid waste to the city in November. William T. Sherman’s invasion was a pivotal moment in the history of the South and Atlanta’s rebuilding over the following fifty years came to represent the contested meaning of the Civil War itself. The war’s aftermath brought contentious transition from Old South to New for whites and African Americans alike. Historian William Link argues that this struggle def...

Offering a provocative new look at the politics of secession in antebellum Virginia, William Link places African Americans at the center of events and argues that their acts of defiance and rebellion had powerful political repercussions throughout the turbulent period leading up to the Civil War.An upper South state with nearly half a million slaves — more than any other state in the nation — and some 50,000 free blacks, Virginia witnessed a uniquely volatile convergence of slave r...

North Carolina has had more than its share of accomplished, influential women—women who have expanded their sphere of influence or broken through barriers that had long defined and circumscribed their lives, women such as Elizabeth Maxwell Steele, the widow and tavern owner who supported the American Revolution; Harriet Jacobs, runaway slave, abolitionist, and author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; and Edith Vanderbilt and Katharine Smith Reynolds, elite women who promot...

William Johnson had a problem. Two days ago a department of the government ordered his family eliminated. He was stunned and he was angry. Ever since 2025, the government has been out of control. Doing as it pleased without concern for who it hurt along the way. He had ignored it up to this point, but no longer. He was determined to make a change. He didn’t know how, or when, or what form it would take, but it was going to change.Gloria Ashley, Director in Charge of the Technology ...

From Autistic Advocate, Love on the Spectrum cast member, and therapist Kaelynn Partlow, a warm, personal, and practical guide to understanding autism—from behaviors to communication and beyond.You've heard from autistic authors.You've heard from therapists.Now hear from one extraordinary young woman who's both.Experience autism from the inside out through a rare fu...