Honors for 'Paradox of Tar Heel Politics'

This has been a terrific year for new books about North Carolina, what with Bill Link's biography of Jesse Helms and Anna Hayes' book about former N.C. Chief Justice Susie Sharp and her surprising private life. There are a number of other good books, too, that I've written about before and intend to write more about them. But today's news I spotted in Peder Zane's blog on the N&O's website:

"The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association has announced the winners of the 2008 North Carolina Book Awards.
"The News & Observer's chief political reporter, Rob Christensen, won The Ragan Old North State Award for his history, 'The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events that Shaped Modern North Carolina.'"

Here's a link to Zane's blog and the other winners.

The Regan Award for Rob is well-deserved recognition of a tireless reporter's hard work over a long time to bring to print the stories that helped make North Carolina what it was in the 20th century and what it is in the 21st. Rob's an outstanding reporter with an unerring sense about context, which is what makes his new book so useful. If you haven't seen it and you want to know how we got to this point, read The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics.