Description
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY – An important, deeply affectingand regrettably relevant (New York Times Book Review) chronicle of a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way
American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedomtheir freedom to dominate others.
In Freedoms Dominion, prizewinning historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, freedom became a weapon. With freedom as their cry, white Americans seized Native lands, championed secession, overthrew Reconstruction, questioned the New Deal, and fought against the civil rights movement.
Through a riveting account of two centuries of local clashes between white people and federal authorities, Freedoms Dominion offers a radically new history of federal power, democracy, and American freedom. This history summons us today to embrace a vigorous model of American citizenship, backed by a federal government that is not afraid to fight the many incarnations of the freedom to dominate.
Author: Jefferson Cowie
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 01/02/2024
Pages: 512
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.40w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9781541605121
Language: English
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