About the book
Through the history of one Alabama county, it examines how appeals to 'freedom' justified white domination.
It won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Curated by intendle
Published
History, Society & Current Affairs
Freedom's Dominion
A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
JC
Written by
Published by
Basic Books (Hachette)
Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power is a work of history by Jefferson Cowie, published by Basic Books in November 2022.
- Published
- 2022
- Pages
- 512
- Format
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
Whose freedom?
Jefferson Cowie's Freedom's Dominion answers by excavating two centuries of a single Alabama county, Barbour, where 'freedom' repeatedly meant the freedom of white citizens to dominate Black ones without federal interference. From the dispossession of Native peoples through slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the civil-rights era, Cowie shows how a potent American idea - liberty as freedom from government - was wielded again and again to defend racial power.
It is intellectual history grounded in vivid local detail, tracing a rhetoric whose echoes remain instantly recognizable. intendle recommends it for anyone trying to understand the deep roots of contemporary fights over federal authority and states' rights. Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for History, it is rigorous, unsettling and clarifying.
By focusing so tightly on one place, Cowie illuminates a contradiction at the heart of the whole American experiment.
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Pages
512
Published
2022
Basic Books (Hachette)
Where to buy
Format
Hardcover
First edition
Language
English
History, Society & Current Affairs
ISBN
978-1541672802
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