Sunday, May 16, 2010

Pre-order your copy of Greater Freedom now!

Hello Family,

I hope this post finds you all in good health. As many of you know, I just completed my first book. It’s called Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina. It explores the growth and development of a civil rights struggle in a rural county in eastern North Carolina. Here’s a quick synopsis of it:

"Greater Freedom offers a groundbreaking long-term community study of Wilson County, North Carolina. Charting the evolution of Wilson’s civil rights movement, Charles McKinney argues that African Americans in Wilson created an expansive notion of freedom that influenced every aspect of life in the region and directly confronted the state’s reputation for moderation. Through exhaustive research and a compelling narrative, McKinney chronicles the approaches and perspectives that blacks in this eastern North Carolina County utilized to confront white supremacy. In the face of violence, intimidation and marginalization, voting rights activists, educational reformers, union members, students and working class black women activists in Wilson collaborated to build a grassroots movement that helped shape the course of the national civil rights movement in America.”

My publisher, University Press of America, will only begin printing copies of the book once I’ve filled a prepublication order of one hundred copies. Can you help me out by buying a couple of copies? Or ten? Or twenty? I’ll be using the book for classes in the fall, which means that I will order forty copies for my classes. I’ll also be ordering more to give to libraries and schools in North Carolina that may be interested in civil rights studies. That leaves sixty books to go. My goal is to meet the prepublication request within the next month so the book can be published by November. I’ll be going up for tenure next year, so I’ll need to have this order completed for the book to get published – so Chuck can keep his job!

You can get copies of the book by ordering from UPA’s customer service department by calling 1-800-462-6420 or by e-mailing a customer service representative at custserv@rowman.com, and using the promotion code "UPREPUB." The representative will ask you for an ISBN number. That number is 978-0-7618-5230-8. The book sells at the low low price of $41.50 per copy. Also – if you do buy a copy (or three!) please call or email me to let me know. I’d like to keep a tab on how well the book is selling.

Thanks to all of you who are able to buy a copy of what I hope is an informative, enjoyable read. Don’t hesitate to give me a call if you have any questions. Again, thanks, ya'll.

Love,

Chuck

3 comments:

  1. Looking forward to reading it!

    best,
    Patrick Jones

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  2. I'm a Wilson native, born in the last months of segregated Mercy Hospital. I'm going to pre-order a couple of copies and pass the link on to my father (who still lives there) and to the Wilson County Genealogical Society, which also promotes historical work.

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  3. Lisa,

    Thanks for your support! You can now order the book directly from Amazon, or from the publisher, University Press of America. I hope your father will like the book, and look forward to any feedback he may want to provide.

    CM

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